Increased risk of melanoma in airline pilots

Commercial airline pilots have a substantially increased risk of developing malignant melanoma, according to new research from Iceland. Dr Rafnsson and his team from the University of Reykjavik found that the rate of malignant melanoma was 10 times higher in a group of 458 commercial airline pilots than in Iceland's general population. Their findings were published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine last month (J Occup Med 2000:57: 175-9).

Multiple occupational and lifestyle factors may increase pilots' cancer risk (CSA ARCHIVE/PHOTONICA)

The researchers studied the rates of malignant melanoma in pilots who worked for Icelandic airlines and compared them with data from the national cancer registry of people of the same age. There were five cases of malignant melanoma in the pilots while only 0.5 cases would be expected based on population data. Rates for pilots flying international routes were 15 times higher than expected, and 25 times higher for pilots flying routinely from Iceland to the United States.

The results are consistent with other studies of cancer in airline pilots, but the authors acknowledge that the small number of cases makes it difficult to draw substantive conclusions. Previous research by Danish scientists has shown that pilots and other cabin crew also had a higher risk of leukaemia, which was believed to be due to increased exposure to cosmic radiation.

The high risk of malignant melanoma appears to be exacerbated by jetlag. Regular flights over several time zones increased the risk even further.

The authors acknowledge that pilots have other occuptional and lifestyle factors that affect the risk of skin cancer, such as exposure to sun, engine exhaust gases, ozone, and cosmic radiation. Bigger and better studies should now be done, they conclude.