Melissa Reyes was in the thick of a life she had worked hard to build.
After spending much of her 20s and early 30s focused on a career in education, the Long Island mother had paused to start her family – admittedly later than some of her friends.
But this wasn’t an issue. She focused on exercising regularly, worked with a personal trainer and, as she put it, trying ‘to better myself as a woman and a mother.’
Then, a few months after the birth of her second child, at the age of 36, she found a lump in her right breast.
At first, Reyes assumed it was linked to breastfeeding. But doctors soon diagnosed her with stage 2A invasive ductal carcinoma – the most common form of breast cancer.
The news was a devastating shock.
She did not smoke, she barely drank, there was no strong family history of the disease. Nothing, she felt, could obviously explained why cancer had arrived so suddenly in her 30s.
‘To be honest, before my diagnosis I didn’t really think about breast cancer – it doesn’t run in my family,’ she told the Daily Mail. ‘So, there’s always that question in the back of your mind: Why has this happened to me?’
Melissa Reyes and her two children in a swimming pool. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at just 36 years old, shortly after welcoming her second child
An aerial view of the Hamptons on New York’s Long Island, which some health experts fear could be a cancer ‘cluster’
Now in remission, Reyes said that question has felt difficult to escape as she is far from an isolated case.
She lives on Long Island, the affluent stretch of suburbia just east of New York City where tree-lined streets lead to pristine beaches and sprawling homes worth millions.
For decades, it has been sold as an American idyll – a place where Wall Street financiers retreat from Manhattan, families raise children and communities in Nassau and Suffolk counties rank among the wealthiest in the country.
But beneath the polished image, anxiety has been quietly growing over what many residents see as an alarming pattern.
Cancer rates across Nassau and Suffolk counties are around 13 percent higher than the national average, with 508 cases per 100,000 residents compared to 442 per 100,000 across the US.
That is also roughly eight percent higher than New York state overall, where the rate stands at 467 per 100,000.
And recent studies suggest the burden is especially pronounced for certain cancers.
Data from Stony Brook Cancer Center show breast cancer diagnoses are 11 percent higher across the two counties than the national average.
Colorectal cancer rates are also markedly elevated, with 53 cases per 100,000 people on Long Island compared to 36 per 100,000 nationwide – a 32 percent higher risk.
Despite the area’s wealth and proximity to New York City, Nassau and Suffolk counties are at the center of what doctors describe as a growing health crisis.
Reyes told the Daily Mail that, after her diagnosis, she ‘started hearing about more and more cases,’ adding that ‘it does feel more common here on Long Island, especially among younger women.’
Reyes received treatment for her breast cancer, which was something she had never considered could happen to her until it did
Reyes told the Daily Mail she has noticed more and more cases of breast cancer in her area since she was diagnosed
Specialists on Long Island have said there is no single cause. Instead, a combination of demographic and environmental factors is likely driving the trend.
For one, Reyes’ physician Dr Kathy Deng, a breast oncologist at The Cancer Institute at Good Samaritan University Hospital, told the Daily Mail that many of her patients are high-achieving professional women – a group more likely to delay having children or have fewer of them.
According to Deng, having kids later – or not at all – can increase someone’s risk of developing breast cancer.
During pregnancy, breast cells mature and become more stable, making them less vulnerable to cancer.
When pregnancy is delayed or does not happen, more cells remain in a less developed state where they are more susceptible to the mutations that can trigger the disease.
‘When women have careers, they are more likely to not have children at all, or they have children later in life – and when they do have children, we know they’re having fewer,’ Deng said.
The data reflect that shift. In New York, first-time mothers are now typically 29 years old – two years older than the national average, according to the latest CDC figures.
Across the US, most first births occur between the ages of 30 and 39, at around 75 per 1,000 women, compared to 13.5 per 1,000 for those over 40.
Dr Paolo Boffetta, associate director for population science at the Stony Brook Cancer Center on Long Island
In New York, the pattern is even more pronounced, with 81 births per 1,000 women aged 30 to 39 and 20 per 1,000 among those over 40.
Overall fertility in the state is slightly lower than the national average, at 52 births per 1,000 women compared to 54 per 1,000.
Deng said this shift has important biological implications.
Breastfeeding also offers protection from breast cancer risks, as it pauses the menstrual cycle and reduces exposure to estrogen – a hormone that can fuel some forms of the disease. But Deng said this is often harder to sustain for working women.
‘Women who are working find it incredibly difficult to do full-time breastfeeding, full-time pumping,’ she said.
When asked about the risks of having children later, Reyes told the Daily Mail that she ‘wasn’t aware of that at all.’
‘No one ever warned me that having children later could possibly increase your risk of breast cancer,’ she explained. ‘If anything, after I gave birth people talked about how breastfeeding reduces your risk.’
When asked whether greater awareness of the link could influence women’s choices, Reyes noted that women ‘already feel so much pressure.’
‘You have to have children by a certain age and now you’re putting another factor into it – it’s scary,’ she said.
‘If I’d known this could potentially increase the risk of breast cancer, because I started having children at 33, it honestly might have changed my mind about when I had kids.’
In terms of other risk factors, Deng also pointed to the region’s ethnic demographics. Long Island is home to one of the largest Jewish populations in the world, with more than 300,000 residents.
Many are of Ashkenazi descent – a group known to have higher rates of inherited BRCA gene mutations linked to breast and other cancers.
Ashkenazi Jewish people are more likely to carry certain inherited genetic mutations linked to conditions such as Tay-Sachs disease, cystic fibrosis and some cancers.
Construction workers unearthed six 55-gallon chemical drums from Bethpage Community Park in 2024. They were filled with liquid that contained toxic solvents, potentially raising the risk of cancer
Northrop Grumman operated on a 600-acre part of Long Island from about 1954 until 1994. During this time, the company designed, tested and fabricated prototype aircraft for the US Navy and NASA
Around one in 40 carry a BRCA mutation – roughly 20 times the rate seen in the general population.
These genes normally help repair damaged DNA, but when altered, the risk of breast, ovarian, pancreatic and prostate cancers can rise sharply, in some cases by as much as 80 percent.
In rare cases, people who inherit two faulty copies – one from each parent – can develop Fanconi anemia, a serious blood disorder that causes bone marrow failure, raises the risk of leukemia and disrupts the body’s ability to repair DNA.
Doctors say this genetic backdrop may be one piece of a much larger puzzle.
Dr Paolo Boffetta, associate director for population science at Stony Brook Cancer Center, said the influence of Long Island’s Ashkenazi Jewish population ‘could be something to explore’ in future research.
‘There are big disparities on Long Island, with so many disadvantaged areas and people of different ethnicities,’ he added.
Deng also pointed out that ‘Long Island is incredibly diverse.’
‘We have a large African-American Black population,’ she said. ‘We have a large Asian population, a large Jewish population and a large Hispanic population – and each ethnicity has different risk factors.’
Around 12 percent of Long Island residents are Asian-American, compared to seven percent nationally – a group shown in some studies to face a higher risk of early-onset colorectal cancer, meaning the disease develops before the age of 50.
Other demographic components, like age, may also be contributing.
The region is getting older. In 2023, the number of residents aged over 65 reached a record 529,000 – a 24 percent increase over the past decade.
Age remains one of the strongest risk factors for cancer, as cells accumulate damage over time and the body becomes less effective at repairing it.
‘Cases will increase because the aging population is increasing,’ Boffetta said. ‘Cancer is a disease of the elderly.’
Reyes embraces her two children as they pose for a photo. She told the Daily Mail she is eager to ‘starting to feel like normal again’ after her cancer journey
There may, however, also be dangers lurking in the environment that are driving up Long Island’s cancer rates.
Health experts studying the trend have long raised concerns about water quality, pollution and historic waste disposal.
A 2023 poll by Mount Sinai South Nassau found that 54 percent of residents believe their area is ‘environmentally unhealthy.’
The region is home to several hazardous waste sites, Deng said.
‘We know that Long Island was a huge manufacturing hub during World War II,’ she explained.
In 1937, Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation (now Northrop Grumman) and the US Navy set up a facility in Bethpage to build fighter jets and, later, components for the Apollo lunar modules.
For decades, toxic chemicals and carcinogens were dumped on site, seeping through the soil into the water beneath the ground and creating a vast underground plume stretching four miles long and two miles wide.
In 2024, 22 concrete-encased metal drums containing toxic solvents were discovered in Bethpage Community Park – once used by Grumman and the Navy as a dumping ground.
Following the discovery, the New York State Department of Health said it would examine data from 2014 to 2021 to assess whether the contamination was linked to elevated cancer risk.
Long Island’s drinking water has also recorded some of the highest levels in the country of 1,4-Dioxane – an industrial solvent and byproduct of items such as shampoos and detergents.
The chemical is considered a likely carcinogen by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
Research suggests around 70 percent of the island’s public supply wells have, at some point, contained detectable levels of 1,4-Dioxane.
Estimates from the New York Senate indicate some water systems may contain levels up to 100 times higher than what the EPA believes could increase cancer risk.
Other environmental exposures may also play a role, including air pollution linked to the 9/11 attacks in nearby New York City.
A 2025 study from Stony Brook, co-authored by Boffetta, found first responders at Ground Zero had nearly a threefold increased risk of lung cancer a decade after the attacks.
Long Island had one of the highest concentrations of first responders, with around 1,000 personnel from Nassau and Suffolk counties deployed.
However, Boffetta stressed that researchers have not identified a single dominant cause.
‘We have not identified any one major pollutant,’ he said, adding that ongoing research is examining links between the island’s Superfund sites (contaminated areas designated by the EPA for long-term hazardous waste cleanup) and cancer risk.
For residents concerned about their risk, Deng emphasized the importance of screening, particularly for breast and colorectal cancer.
‘We generally recommend that average-risk women begin mammograms at 40, but I have [breast cancer] patients in their 20s and 30s.
‘So be aware of your body. If you notice any changes, bring it up to your doctor. If something feels different to you, say something.’
Reyes now sees Deng every six months for follow-up scans to make sure the cancer does not return and has also had breast implants placed in 2024. Now, she’s left coping with the emotional aftermath of her journey, focused on moving forward.
‘I’m just looking forward to staying cancer free,’ she told the Daily Mail.
‘I really don’t want to go through that again. I’m just starting to feel like normal again, like my regular self before cancer. I just want to feel like I did before.’
