Increased Cancer Risk Associated with Radiation in Aerospace

Abstract

There is increased risk of malignancies in association with radiation exposure in aerospace due to UV, cosmic radiations and due to fuels. Radiation could be ionizing and non ionizing [1]. Predominantly skin malignancies are caused by non-ionizing ultraviolet radiation and UV radiation which causes DNA damage, dimerization and defective repair [2]. Leukemia occurs due to ionizing radiation. There are oncogenes implicated in human skin cancers like ras oncogenes.Oncogenes display a positive effect on transformation, whereas tumor suppressor genes have an essentially negative effect, blocking transformation. Ionizing irradiation induces alterations within the tumor microenvironment. Radiation delivered to the tumor bed can prompt phenotypic changes in both normal stromal and cancer cells, leading to molecular and physiological alterations within the tumor microenvironment. These environmental modulations directly influence the degree of immunogenicity of the tumor microenvironment and may ultimately affect tumor responsiveness to cancer immunotherapies.