Mt. Juliet Children Battle Rare Forms Of Cancer

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Savannah Swandal, age 9, suffers from rhabdomyosarcoma

By Nick Beres

MT. JULIET, Tenn. – Five elementary school children are battling rare forms of cancer in the fast-growing city of Mt. Juliet in Wilson County. Parents are frightened and medical experts say the cause is a mystery.

Nine-year-old Savannah Swandal is one of the children. She has rhabdomyosarcoma. Fast-growing and cancerous tumors rack her small body. Savannah goes to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt for treatment.

Savannah says the treatment makes her feel, "sick – it can make you throw up a lot. You get real dizzy and want to go to sleep when you get home."

Her mother, Robin Landes, is concerned about the other four children in Mt. Juliet who are also being treated for rare cancers.

“I can think of eight or nine [children] off the top of my head in our town of Mt. Juliet with different types of cancers or leukemia,” says Landes.

This past week, friends organized a fundraiser to benefit 9-year-olds Bishop Mikaelian and Savannah and 3-year-olds Karli Costley and Thomas Winfrey – all battling different types of rare cancers.

Landes says she cannot help but wonder if there is a relationship between the number of rare cancers and the environment.

"If there is a correlation between something in our area and all these kids getting cancer, then we need to find that out,” she says.

"When a parent asks me, ‘why did my child get cancer?’ I say, ‘we don't know,’" says Dr. Debra Friedman, head of pediatric cancer at Vanderbilt.

Dr. Friedman says contrary to what parents might suspect, there is no evidence of a so-called cancer cluster in Mt. Juliet. That means no obvious link to water, soil or a pollutant from local industry.

She says the number of childhood cancer cases in Mt. Juliet is not necessarily out of step with the number of cases in similar size cities.

“Childhood cancer is rare, so when one person gets it and another person hears about it, it seems more common,” says Dr. Friedman.

While there are several cases of childhood cancer in Mt. Juliet, the rates are not out of step with other cities of similar size. Even so, Dr. Friedman is keeping a close watch on occurrences in the city.

"Cancer is reported and we collect every case of cancer here at Vanderbilt," she says.

The state also keeps a cancer registry to monitor for possible cancer clusters.

Children make up only two percent of cancer patients in the United States. Experts say there are fewer that 13,000 cases a year nationwide.

If a pattern does someday emerge linking childhood cancers like Savannah's to others in Mt. Juliet, both Vanderbilt and the state will be quick to investigate.

Email: nberes@newschannel5.com