wright flyer
Most cancers ok provided the blood counts are within set limits,
Really? Perhaps you are thinking of several years after diagnosis, having been recleared to fly with a good prognosis, but the specific and detailed UK issued CAA guidance for initial handling of cancer cases is here:
https://www.caa.co.uk/Aeromedical-Ex...e-material-GM/
From which:
<<
On reporting a diagnosis of malignancy, applicants should be assessed as unfit. ( my note: that is any malignancy).
Recertification can be considered following receipt of a satisfactory specialist report........( my note: from an oncologist)
For recertification:
Treatment completed
Full recovery
No symptoms that could affect flight safety
No complications, or if any, appropriate investigation and specialist referral may be required>> (my emphasis)
I think the only relaxation on some of the above is for some melanomas.(?sp).
From what I have heard/seen in the U.K. you are grounded TFN once the disease is diagnosed and you stay grounded until treatment is finished and assessments have been carried out, at which point you may be able to return to flying...which brings us to the all important timescale;
The big problem there is that any chemotherapy bars you from holding a Class 1 and some form of chemo in a treatment plan is almost inevitable, done in conjunction or following radio therapy, surgery etc. That ban applies even to the relatively benign adjuvant chemo courses done at home, which often run for six months or more after surgery or other treatments have been completed. As a result for many "common" cancers you can easily be off work for many months, perhaps a year or more, even if you are asymptomatic from the disease itself..
Looking on the bright side and at the stats it is a disease that has an lowish incidence at the start of an average flying career when your outgoings are probably highest but I would not do a risk assesment based on the assumption you can have "most cancers" and be able to carry on flying whilst undergoing treatment at the same time...