Military Aviators Cancer Study (MACS)

Phase 1 of the "Study of Incidence of Cancer Diagnosis and Mortality Among Military Aviators and Aviation Support Personnel" was a retrospective cohort study performed to determine whether there was a higher incidence of cancer amongst military aviators and aviation support personnel than in the general U.S. population. Military health records and cancer data were examined for 156,050 aircrew and for a further 737,891 groundcrew; the records were compared to the U.S. population using the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program (SEER) as a reference population. The Phase 2 study is required to investigate and identify the occupational and environmental risk factors contributing to the elevated cancer rates identified in Phase 1.

Cancer data for both the military and SEER populations were examined for the surveillance period of January 1, 1992, through December 31, 2017. All types of malignant cancer diagnoses were included in the study: additionally, 12 cancer sites were analyzed in greater detail.

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