Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
 

I was diagnosed by a Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia in November, 2016. I am 59 years old and fly since 1977. 15 years in the Air Force and since 1992 in civil airline company. I flew DC10 around the world, high altitude and high latitude. I was based 1 year in Iceland.
I just recovered my medical, and fly again on 757 from Paris to Newark. I am under treatment medical and today everything goes well. In France the medical capacity is mainly given by military medical officers. For the doctors I can keep flying because there is no cause with effect between my professional activity and my health.
On the Internet I found an article of " National Institutes of Health " explainig the "Increased frequency of chromosome translocations in airline pilots with long-term flying experiences".
Does some one have informations?
Thank you for help.

It would be helpful if you could post a link to the article.

Increased frequency of chromosome translocations in airline pilots with long-term flying experience | Occupational & Environmental Medicine


Abstract

Background: Chromosome translocations are an established biomarker of cumulative exposure to external ionising radiation. Airline pilots are exposed to cosmic ionising radiation, but few flight crew studies have examined translocations in relation to flight experience.

Methods: We determined the frequency of translocations in the peripheral blood lymphocytes of 83 airline pilots and 50 comparison subjects (mean age 47 and 46 years, respectively). Translocations were scored in an average of 1039 cell equivalents (CE) per subject using fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) whole chromosome painting and expressed per 100 CE. Negative binomial regression models were used to assess the relationship between translocation frequency and exposure status and flight years, adjusting for age, diagnostic x ray procedures, and military flying.

Results: There was no significant difference in the adjusted mean translocation frequency of pilots and comparison subjects (0.37 (SE 0.04) vs 0.38 (SE 0.06) translocations/100 CE, respectively). However, among pilots, the adjusted translocation frequency was significantly associated with flight years (p = 0.01) with rate ratios of 1.06 (95% CI 1.01 to 1.11) and 1.81 (95% CI 1.16 to 2.82) for a 1- and 10-year incremental increase in flight years, respectively. The adjusted rate ratio for pilots in the highest compared to the lowest quartile of flight years was 2.59 (95% CI 1.26 to 5.33).

Conclusions: Our data suggests that pilots with long-term flying experience may be exposed to biologically significant doses of ionising radiation. Epidemiological studies with longer follow-up of larger cohorts of pilots with a wide range of radiation exposure levels are needed to clarify the relationship between cosmic radiation exposure and cancer risk.

So no evidence of more damage from cosmic radiation than in the controls which is in line with other papers that have failed to demonstrate a significant increase in malignancy in pilots.