My wife was telling me about this the other day, and it's a little alarming.

DIPG (diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma) is a rare and super-aggressive form of brain cancer, almost exclusively found in children, that's essentially a death sentence when diagnosed. Mortality rate 2 years from diagnosis is 90% and by 5 years that's up to 98%+.

Nationwide, there are usually somewhere around 200-225 active cases of patients diagnosed with DIPG in the United States, and at any given time, state-wide, Kentucky has an average of 2 active cases of DIPG. That diagnosis number fits right in line with population base, with Kentucky residents representing 1.35% of the US citizens.

As of early July of this year, though, active cases of DIPG in Kentucky rose to a total of 10, and there have evidently been two more added since then. Additionally, the majority of those cases are in individuals living local to Corbin, Williamsburg, and the surrounding vicinity of Whitley County - which is notable since there have never been any environmental or hereditary causes identified to contribute to the development or occurrence of DIPG. One of the other notable facts about the very unusual bump in cases is the fact that 2 cases are in adults. Adults typically represent 2% of all diagnosed cases of DIPG, with the remaining 98% all occurring in individuals 18 and under.

The Kentucky Department of Health announced in July that the CDC is investigating the situation.

People in NKY may be a little more familiar with the disease after the attention brought to it by Mount St. Joseph University basketball player Lauren Hill who lost a very well documented battle with DIPG in early 2015, or from Grace White, daughter of Covington Catholic alum Scott White.

Lauren Hill | Wikipedia




Operation Grace White | YouTube

49 minutes ago, Colonels_Wear_Blue said:

As of early July of this year, though, active cases of DIPG in Kentucky rose to a total of 10, and there have evidently been two more added since then. Additionally, the majority of those cases are in individuals living local to Corbin, Williamsburg, and the surrounding vicinity of Whitley County - which is notable since there have never been any environmental or hereditary causes identified to contribute to the development or occurrence of DIPG. One of the other notable facts about the very unusual bump in cases is the fact that 2 cases are in adults. Adults typically represent 2% of all diagnosed cases of DIPG, with the remaining 98% all occurring in individuals 18 and under.

That is extremely odd and almost has to make CDC look at environmental and hereditary causes.

2 hours ago, theguru said:

That is extremely odd and almost has to make CDC look at environmental and hereditary causes.

Oh, ABSOLUTELY they've gotta be looking into that, yeah.