Gov. Kathy Hochul is considering a bill to examine whether there could be areas of higher-than-normal cancer rates across New York state.

The bill defines a “cancer cluster” as a greater-than-expected number of cancer cases that occurs within a group of people in a specific place within a certain time frame.

State Sen. James Sanders, the bill’s sponsor, told Spectrum News 1 it was his relationship with a constituent named Sarah who was concerned about the prevalence of cancer in her neighborhood in Queens that opened his eyes to the idea that there may be a problem statewide.

“I heard her, but it didn’t really register,” he said. “It registered later when I found out that Sarah had cancer.”

It was a battle that he says took Sarah’s life, but it led Sanders to introduce legislation to have the state Department of Health study cancer clusters in New York’s cities with more than 90,000 people.

“Do they exist? God willing, they don’t exist. But if they do, and I fear they do, where are they? How did they come about? And what actions can we take?”

Dr. Robert Dracker, chairman of the Heart, Lung, and Cancer Committee for the Medical Society of the State of New York, encourages such studies.

“Anything that increases surveillance of the population in the state of New York is good,” he said. “They would look at the case numbers and the population, the relative ratio compared to what’s known to the American Cancer Society, then look at causes.”

Sanders said while nothing can be known for sure until the study is conducted, he’s concerned that possible causes could be environmental, like in areas such as Queens or upstate cities like Syracuse, where highways are right up against low-income neighborhoods.

“Generations of people have been breathing those fumes, hearing the noises, dealing with the traffic and the ramifications,” he said.

Sanders hopes that whatever is learned through the study can be used to fix past mistakes and prevent future ones.

“What we do about then remains to be seen, but what we can do about the future is in our hands,” he said.

The study would be required to take into account income, race and ethnicity, as well as proximity to major sources of air pollution and an analysis of nearby medical care.