Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Feb 26, 2020; 8(4): 790-797
Published online Feb 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i4.790
Must pilots permanently quit flying career after treatment for colorectal cancer? - Medical waiver for Air Force pilots with colorectal cancer: Three case reports
Guo-Li Gu, Fu-Xiao Duan, Zhi Zhang, Xue-Ming Wei, Li Cui, Bo Zhang
Guo-Li Gu, Zhi Zhang, Xue-Ming Wei, Department of General Surgery, Air Force Medical Center, PLA, Beijing 100142, China
Fu-Xiao Duan, Department of General Surgery, the General Hospital of Northern Theater Command PLA, Shenyang 110016, Liaoning Province, China
Li Cui, Department of Aviation Diseases, Air Force Medical Center, PLA, Beijing 100142, China
Bo Zhang, Department of Medical Research, Air Force Medical Center, PLA, Beijing 100142, China
Author contributions: Gu GL and Duan FX contributed equally to this study; Gu GL, Cui L and Zhang B designed the research; Gu GL, Duan FX, Zhang Z and Wei XM collected and analyzed the clinical data; Gu GL and Duan FX wrote the manuscript; Zhang B and Cui L revised the manuscript.
Supported by Major Projects of the Chinese PLA “Thirteenth Five-Year Plan”Logistics Research Subject, No. AKJ15J003 and No. AKJ15J001; and Incubation Project of Military Medical Science and Technology Youth Cultivation Program, No. 17QNP023.
Informed consent statement: We obtained consent from the patients or their relatives for publication of this report.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Bo Zhang, MD, Chief Doctor, Professor, Department of Medical Research, Air Force Medical Center, PLA, No. 30, Fucheng Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100142, China. hero1822@163.com
Received: November 14, 2019
Peer-review started: November 14, 2019
First decision: November 21, 2019
Revised: December 9, 2019
Accepted: December 14, 2019
Article in press: December 14, 2019
Published online: February 26, 2020
Processing time: 104 Days and 8.7 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Colorectal cancer (CRC) could seriously threaten the physical and mental health of pilots. Shall they end their flying after treatment of CRC? With this study, we investigated the possibility of a gradual medical waiver for such pilots to fly aircrafts again after treatment of CRC.

CASE SUMMARY

We analyzed the medical waiver and clinical data of 3 pilots with CRC, who had accepted the treatment at the Department of General Surgery, Air Force Medical Center (formerly, Air Force General Hospital) between 2013 and 2018. All 3 cases underwent a series of comprehensive treatment courses, including radical resection of CRC, sequential radiotherapy, and chemotherapy. The follow-up results were satisfactory. After passing through the high-risk period of recurrence and metastasis of CRC, they all were given a medical waiver for flying again. Medical observation showed that their flying operations were safe.

CONCLUSION

The CRC treatment shall follow the guidelines for diagnosis and treatment and should simultaneously protect the combating capabilities of pilots as much as possible. It is safe for pilots with CRC, who are continuously monitored under medical observation after passing through the high-risk period of recurrence and metastasis, to undertake military flight missions again.

Keywords: Colorectal cancer; Pilot; Waiver; Treatment; Military medicine; Aeromedicine; Case report

Core tip: Colorectal cancer could seriously threaten the physical and mental health of pilots. The question that presents then is, shall they end their flying career aftertreatment of colorectal cancer? In this study, we investigated the possibility of a gradual medical waiver for the pilots to fly aircrafts again after treatment of colorectal cancer.