Volunteer families to be studied in leukemia probe

Siobhan McDonough

Wednesday, July 25, 2001 | 11 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Dozens of volunteer families in Fallon will be recruited for a study within the next few weeks to help scientists find the cause of a leukemia epidemic plaguing the northwest Nevada town.

Since 1997, 14 children with ties to the Navy and farming town have been diagnosed with the disease, mainly acute lymphocytic leukemia. One of them recently died.

For each of the 14 case families, four volunteer comparison families with similar genders and ages will be selected for testing by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, state epidemiologist Randy Todd said.

CDC and state health officials planned to meet with Fallon residents Tuesday evening to discuss the scope of the study.

CDC officials will start human and environmental testing in mid-August after the comparison families are randomly recruited.

Human testing includes blood, urine and perhaps some cheek cell scrapings, he said. Researchers will look for evidence of various cancer-causing chemicals such as heavy metals or pesticides that could be in the environment.

"The issue isn't whether you can detect it in case families," Todd said. "The real issue is whether you can detect different contaminants at higher levels of it in case families than in comparison families."