A staggering 5,892 first responders and people who lived and worked near Ground Zero have died from cancer caused by the toxic air in the 25 years since 9/11 — more than double the 2,753 people killed in the terror attacks, new data reveal.

Cancer cases continue to explode, with 57,044 cases now documented, and officials warning the true tally could be even more grim.

Overall, a shocking 9,677 first responders and survivors have died of illnesses tied to 9/11, according to September 11 Victim Compensation Fund data as of July 31.

No agency publicly specifies the 9/11-related illnesses still killing people, other than cancer.

Non-melanoma skin cancer is the most common cancer suffered by responders and civilians exposed to Ground Zero toxins, with 18,380 cases. Next is prostate (13,170 cases), female breast (4,830), melanoma (3,860 cases) and lymphoma (2,560), according to Centers for Disease Control data as of June 30.

The cancer numbers are far from average — the rates have soared among the group compared to the general population, according to data from the World Trade Center Health Program.

Members of the program are 123 times more likely to have thyroid cancer, 119 times more likely to have melanoma and 98 times more likely to be diagnosed with prostate cancer than the general public, according to an analysis of the data. Women are 100 times more likely to suffer from breast cancer than those in the general population.

Breast cancer among men, which is rare, has also surged, lawyer Michael Barasch, 71, told The Post.

“Only one and a half percent of all breast cancer [cases] are male,” said Barasch, whose firm is litigating 50,000 cases involving 9/11 illnesses. “We should see about five men with male breast cancer – my law firm alone represents 100.”

Barasch’s firm “loses two clients to cancer every day” but gains another dozen who either have cancer or are family members of those who have died of illnesses related to 911.

Barasch’s office at 11 Park Place was three blocks from the Twin Towers, and he remembers looking out his window “in a trance watching people jumping.”

First responders and other survivors, including him, were exposed to a relentless cloud of toxic dust and smoke from the scorched jet fuel and building materials, a deadly stench that lingered until December.

The cloud contained carcinogenic compounds such as lead, mercury and cadmium from burning plastics, jet fuel and office materials, and a mist of sulfuric acid and other corrosive gases, according to the CDC.

Barasch was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2018 and is under “active surveillance” for the disease, he said. Among his own staff, a 47-year-old secretary died of breast cancer in 2014 and a 49-year-old paralegal died of kidney cancer in 2020, he said.

The World Trade Center Health Program’s findings are “less alarming than we had feared in terms of cancers that are highly prevalent,” said Dr. Michael Crane, medical director of the World Trade Center Health Program Clinical Center of Excellence at Mount Sinai. But the program is still on high alert, he said.

“Since we know all cancers are increased [among members] every time we do a monitoring visit, our eyes are looking for all cancers,” he said.

“One we’re enormously concerned about is melanoma,” which is “much more deadly” than the more common basal skin cancer, he said.

“Then, you have prostate cancer,” he said, explaining men in their 60s and 70s are more prone to have it, but adding, “We do believe that it has an increased frequency because of the exposure.” 

Thyroid cancer is also higher among members “and we have to pay attention to it,” he said.

“A little lower in frequency, but of very grave concern are leukemias and the other cancers that involve the lymphatic system called lymphomas,” he said.

Leukemias are a group of blood cancers that start in the bone marrow, and lymphomas are blood cancers that start in germ-fighting white blood cells.

But the true cancer toll is likely far higher than what’s recorded, Crane said, because thousands never enrolled in the program.

About 400,000 people were “significantly exposed” to the toxins at Ground Zero below Canal Street, he said. 

While about 90,000 first responders signed up for the program, only about 60,000 of the far larger civilian group joined — people in “the apartment buildings with the windows open . . . and kids crawling around on the floor,” he said.

“Those children are now in their 20s and remain largely unstudied,” he said. “What’s going to happen with them?”

The program is trying to sign more survivors up with mixed results.

“I mean, people have really tried, but we’re just not getting the folks in the door,” he said, adding that some people might still think the program is “just for first responders.”

Non-cancer illnesses are also killing those close to Ground Zero in the last 25 years.

The CDC has recorded 3,679 program members who are battling Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a progressive lung disease that makes it hard to breathe and the most common non-cancer illness among members. Like other non-cancer illnesses, COPD deaths are not publicly tallied.

Retired FDNY Deputy Chief Richard Alles arrived at the attacks after the second tower fell and remained there for weeks.

In the years that followed, he advocated for the James Zadroga Act, which provides medical treatment and financial compensation to 9/11 first responders, recovery workers, and survivors and that Congress passed in 2010.

The advocacy earned him the nickname “The 9/11 guy,” which really hit home when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2023. 

“I can get angry if I thought about it,” he said. “But that just eats you up.”

He was treated with NYU Langone Health System’s Cyber Knife, which is high-intensity radiation, and is cancer free.

Accountant Peter Raho recalls returning to work in a hellscape.

“All the dust would fly in,” the 78-year-old said of opening his office windows. “You could actually write your name in it.” 

He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a blood cancer, in 2014 and underwent chemotherapy and is cancer free, he said.

“I’m taking more medications than I used to,” said the grandfather of two tots. “But I’m still alive and kicking.”

As the city prepared to mark 25 years since 9/11, Barasch said he has a problem with the word “anniversary.”

“Anniversary makes it sound like 9/11 was something that happened and ended 25 years ago,” he said. “But it didn’t. September 11 brought loss we could scarcely comprehend and it was only the beginning.”