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The Incidence of Breast and Other Cancers Among Female Flight Attendants

National Cancer Institute (NCI) logo

National Cancer Institute (NCI)

Status

Completed

Conditions

Breast Cancer
Melanoma
Non-Melanoma Skin Cancer
Thyroid Cancer

Study type

Observational

Funder types

Other U.S. Federal agency
NIH

Identifiers

NCT00342407
02-C-N039
999902039

Details and patient eligibility

About

Flight attendants may be at an increased risk of breast and other cancers due to work-place exposures including cosmic radiation and circadian rhythm disruption form traveling across multiple time zones. This cancer incidence study will determine whether female flight attendants are at increased risk of breast and other cancers and whether the risk is dose-related. The study will include a cohort of approximately 10,000 women who were employed as flight attendants for one or more years.

Breast cancer cases will be identified from telephone interviews of living subjects and next-of-kin of deceased subjects, as well as from death certificates. The interview will also provide information about non-occupational risk factors for breast cancer such as parity. Both internal and external comparisons will be made. The primary analysis will evaluate the risk associated with occupational exposure within the cohort, controlling for non-occupational risk factors by stratification or modeling. The secondary analysis will compare the incidence of breast cancer in the cohort to that in the general population, with adjustment for factors such as lower parity which might increase breast cancer risk in the cohort independent of occupational exposure to cosmic radiation and circadian rhythm disruption. The risk of other ionizing radiation-related cancers, such as leukemia, lung cancer, and thyroid cancer, among flight attendants will also be evaluated. The results of the study will apply to female flight crew and frequent fliers.

Full description

Flight attendants may be at an increased risk of breast and other cancers due to work-place exposures including cosmic radiation and circadian rhythm disruption from traveling across multiple time zones. This cancer incidence study will determine whether female flight attendants are at increased risk of breast and other cancers and whether the risk is dose-related. The study will include a cohort of approximately 9,631 women who were employed as flight attendants for one or more years.

Breast cancer cases will be identified from telephone interviews of living subjects and next-of-kin of deceased subjects, as well as from death certificates. The interview will also provide information about non-occupational risk factors for breast cancer such as parity. Both internal and external comparisons will be made. The primary analysis will evaluate the risk associated with occupational exposure within the cohort, controlling for non-occupational risk factors by stratification or modeling. The secondary analysis will compare the incidence of breast cancer in the cohort to that in the general population, with adjustment for factors such as lower parity which might increase breast cancer risk in the cohort independent of occupational exposure to cosmic radiation and circadian rhythm disruption. The risk of other ionizing radiation-related cancers, such as leukemia, lung cancer, and thyroid cancer, among flight attendants will also be evaluated. The results of the study will apply to female flight crew and frequent fliers.

Enrollment

6,093 patients

Sex

Female

Ages

18 to 100 years old

Volunteers

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

  • INCLUSION CRITERIA:

Employed as a flight attendant for one or more years by Pan AM before Pan Am ceased operation in 1991. For flight attendants who transferred to Pan Am from National Airlines when Pan Am bought National Airlines in 1981, the time employed as a flight attendant at National Airlines will be counted towards the one year minimum.

A U.S. citizen when they began working at Pan Am (or National Airlines, if the flight attendant transferred to Pan AM from National Airlines).

Worked at least one day after January 1, 1953.

Trial design

6,093 participants in 1 patient group

Cohort
Description:
Female flight attendants

Trial contacts and locations

1

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Data sourced from clinicaltrials.gov

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