18 years later, cancer cases linger over 9/11 anniversary As the 18th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks approaches, New York continues to count the number of people who have developed cancer or other serious illnesses related to the toxic cloud that hovered over Manhattan for several weeks. "It was determined that because I was so hit, I was down here and I had so much exposure to it, that my cancer was most likely related to 9/11," says Jaquelin Josefa Febrillet, who was diagnosed with metastatic cancer fifteen years after the attacks.