March 20, 2023 – Military pilots and ground personnel have a higher rates of many different types of cancer in comparison with the full population, in line with latest data from the Ministry of Defense.
While pilots and crew members usually tend to be diagnosed with cancer, they’re less more likely to die from it than the remaining of the country's population, the report says.
The study included 156,050 flight attendants and 737,891 ground staff who were observed between 1992 and 2017. Both groups were predominantly male and of non-Hispanic descent.
Data on cancer rates and deaths in these two groups were compared with similar age groups in the final population using the National Cancer Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database.
The study found that flight crew had an 87% higher rate of melanoma, a 39% higher rate of thyroid cancer, a 16% higher rate of prostate cancer, and a 24% higher rate of all cancers combined.
The increased rates of melanoma and prostate cancer amongst flight personnel have been reported previously, however the increased rate of thyroid cancer is a brand new discovery, the authors say.
The increase in melanomas was also reported present in studies on civilian pilots and flight attendants and attributed to exposure to dangerous ultraviolet and cosmic radiation.
Among ground crew members, the evaluation found a 19 percent higher rate of brain and nervous system cancer, a 15 percent higher rate of thyroid cancer, a 9 percent higher rate each of melanoma and kidney and renal pelvis cancer, and a 3 percent higher cancer rate in any respect sites combined.
There is little scope for comparison between these results. This is the primary time that cancer risk has been studied in such numerous military ground personnel.
Lower cancer death rates
In contrast to the rise in cancer rates, the report found a decrease in cancer deaths.
Compared to a comparable U.S. population, the death rate for every type of cancer was 56 percent lower amongst flight crew and 35 percent lower amongst ground crew.
However, the authors of the report emphasize that the military population studied was relatively young.
When analyzing cancer rates, the common age of flight crew was 41 years and that of ground crew was only 26 years. When analyzing mortality rates, the common age of flight crew was 48 years and that of ground crew was 41 years.
“The results may have been different if additional, older former military personnel had been included in the study, since cancer risk and mortality rates increase with age,” the authors commented.
Other studies have found a rise in deaths from melanoma in addition to an increased incidence of melanoma. Meta-analysis published in 2019 within the British Journal of Dermatology found that pilots and flight attendants have about twice the danger of developing melanoma and other skin cancers in comparison with the final population. Pilots are also more more likely to die from melanoma.
The findings on military air and ground personnel come from Phase 1 of a study that Congress requested within the 2021 Defense Act. Because it found a rise in cancer cases, Phase 2 of the study must now be conducted.
The authors of the report explained that Phase 2 will give attention to identifying the carcinogenic toxic or hazardous substances related to military flight operations:
- Operating environments that could be related to increased levels of ionizing and non-ionizing radiation
- Certain tasks, duty hours and aircraft types that will have increased the danger of cancer
- Identification of duty stations with increased cancer rates
- Identifying potential non-aviation-related risks from military service
- Determining the suitable age for initiating cancer screening amongst military flight and ground personnel