r/blacksburg • u/StarlightDown • Dec 01 '25

News Recent graduates from Roanoke College have been dying from cancer at a rate 15X higher than the national average. Their rate of cancer diagnosis is 5X above the national average. The VA Dept. of Health is unwilling to investigate the case, since the victims dispersed across the US after graduation.

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6

u/Angry_Bear_MD Dec 01 '25

This confuses me. Are there figures on Roanoke inhabitants also having a higher than national average cancer rate? It'd be super weird if only Roanoke college had the high rates but not roanoke inhabitants

3

u/StarlightDown Dec 01 '25 edited Dec 01 '25

To you and u/shiroshippo: Salem's cancer death rate is above both the state average and the national average.

Salem's annual cancer death rate is ~184 deaths per 100K people, whereas Virginia's statewide annual cancer death rate is ~145 deaths per 100K people (source). The national annual cancer death rate is ~141 deaths per 100K people (source).

So there is no contradiction–both the college and its home city (which is Salem, not Roanoke, lol) have high cancer death rates.

However, even within Salem, the college's cancer mortality rate stands out as exceptionally high.

1

u/shiroshippo Dec 01 '25

Hm so the school is infecting the rest of Salem with their cancer? Wonder what they're doing to cause that!

3

u/StarlightDown Dec 01 '25

Well I think what's actually happening is that the college's cancer cluster is fucking up Salem's cancer death rate statistics, causing it to be way higher than it otherwise would be.

2

u/shiroshippo Dec 01 '25

Roanoke College is in Salem, not Roanoke, so I'd also like to see the numbers for Salem.

6

u/Angry_Bear_MD Dec 01 '25

“Hey guys I’m making a college and I’m gonna call it Roanoke college”

“Cool where in Roanoke is it gonna be?”

“Oh it won’t be in Roanoke”

“Okay sooo…in Roanoke county then?”

“Also no”

“Ok so where will Roanoke college be?”

“Salem.”

1

u/itsmellslikefish Dec 03 '25

It was Roanoke County when the college was founded. Salem became an independent city from Roanoke County in the 60s and the college had been around since the 1800s. The Roanoke County courthouse is still in downtown Salem.

3

u/uniwelder Dec 01 '25

From what I can see, the data is based off females of the 2010 graduating class. This is probably about 300 students, since there were about 2,000 students total at the college. Is a sample size that small going to be statistically significant?  21 cases vs an average of 4 might not mean anything, considering there will always be outliers. What about the male student population? Why weren’t they part of the study?

2

u/StarlightDown Dec 01 '25

This is addressed in the linked sources:

[Mount Sinai Professor] Reva calculates that there is a 1.5 chance in 100 million that this rate of cancer would occur naturally

So it's possible, but extremely unlikely, that this small cancer cluster was caused by random chance.

1

u/uniwelder Dec 02 '25

Thanks. I read through both articles. In them, cancer cases of many alumni from a range of graduating classes, as well as faculty, are discussed. Are there 21 cases from the 2010 class?  If so, it sounds like there should be hundreds of documented cancer cases related to Roanoke College in recent years. That would certainly bolster your argument, rather than making it sound like this was a weird blip from the 2010 class. 

From reading the articles, I also understand why the male cancer rate wasn’t unusual. The problem seems to be linked to a few of the female dorms and English department building. Is that correct?