Do military pilots have a higher risk for cancer? Lawmakers want to find out
The number of former military pilots who have been diagnosed with cancer has become personal for Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., a Navy veteran who had three deployments on aircraft carriers.
Luria served 20 years as a nuclear-trained Navy surface warfare officer and knows pilots who are facing cancer.
“I had heard and been aware of similar stories of pilots,” Luria said in a phone interview with McClatchy. “And personally know of some who have contracted cancer.”
Luria and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., who currently serves in the Air National Guard, recently introduced the “Military Pilot Cancer Incidence Study Act” to require the military to study whether pilots have a higher risk for cancer and if cockpit radiation or other toxic exposure is to blame.
Over the last several months, McClatchy has reported on the rising rates of cancer treatments at Department of Veterans Affairs health care facilities, found cancer clusters among the military’s top aviators and uncovered that in at least one aircraft, the E2 Hawkeye, the military knew there were hazardous levels of cockpit radiation.
Dozens of former military pilots or their surviving spouses have come forward to draw attention to how many former aviators have died from or are fighting cancer, and the difficulty they had getting the VA to either correctly diagnose or cover the costs of their medical treatments.
Navy Capt. Jim Galanie was a career Navy aviator and test pilot with more than 4,300 hours flying the A-7 Corsair attack plane and F/A-18 fighter jet. He was physically fit and did not show outward symptoms.
“He’s climbing to the top of a Mayan ruin in Mexico in December 2017, and then February 2018 he’s diagnosed with stage four cancer,” said his widow, Sheila Galanie.
Jim Galanie had gone each year to the VA clinic in Charlotte Hall, Maryland, for a regular checkup, including the PSA blood test that detects prostate cancer, she said. Based on his medical records, his PSA numbers had jumped in previous years above the threshold that should have triggered follow-up tests, Galanie said.
“The data was there. His PSA data was right there,” she said. “His symptoms got missed for five years.”
Prostate cancer is a common cancer in men and treatable if detected early. An investigation by McClatchy published in October found that across all military services prostate cancer treatment rates at VA health care facilities rose 23 percent from fiscal year 2000 to fiscal year 2018.
By the time Jim Galanie’s prostate cancer was diagnosed it had spread to other areas and by May 2018 doctors were advising hospice care. He died in May 2019 at age 59.
Last year the Air Force announced it would study cancers in all of its pilots dating back to 1970 after a number of former fighter pilots brought attention to how many of their group were diagnosed with cancer and other illnesses. The Navy said current evidence did not show its aviators were at a higher risk of cancer and that it would see what the Air Force review found.
Galanie said she hopes the Navy will reconsider.
“I would hope that the Navy would choose to take responsibility for its own service members rather than relying on the Air Force, as that would delay treatment, possibly much needed treatment, for people who served,” she said.
Luria said she would like the study to look at cancers among not only active duty pilots but also former pilots. It would require pilot data to be collected by age, gender, type of aircraft flown, and military service.
“I think it bears studying,” Luria said. “Is there an increased prevalence for these types of cancers in people who have flown military aircraft, if so is there a correlation between the type of aircraft and type of equipment and radiation they may be exposed to? The data tells a lot. “
The bill would also require medical screening for pilots as young as 30 for some cancers.
