Since Sept. 11, 2001, 283 World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers have been diagnosed with cancer, and 33 have died of cancer, according to an attorney representing 8,000 World Trade Center responders, including firefighters, police and construction workers. Speaking to the New York Post, attorney David Worby said the cases include blood-cell cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's and myeloma.

"One in 150,000 white males under 40 would normally get the type of acute white blood-cell cancer that strikes a healthy detective," said Worby. "We have nearly 35 of these cancers in the family of 50,000 Ground Zero workers. The odds of that occurring are one in hundreds of millions."

Dr. Robin Herbert, a director of WTC medical monitoring at Mount Sinai Hospital, confirmed that some of the nearly 16,000 responders screened to date have been diagnosed with cancer. "We do not know at this point if they are WTC-related, but some are unusual cancers we see as red flags," Herbert said.