WASHINGTON — The Air Force’s review of cancers among its nuclear missile corps will include all personnel who worked on, guarded, supported or operated the nation’s ground-based warheads, Air Force Global Strike Command announced Wednesday.

Nine officers who had worked as missileers — the airmen who launch the warheads from underground silos and control centers — at Montana’s Malmstrom Air Force Base were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, Lt. Col. Daniel Sebeck of U.S. Space Force reported last month in a briefing obtained by The Associated Press.

Since that briefing, more missileers and missile support crew have come forward to the AP and other media outlets to report they, too, have been diagnosed with either non-Hodgkin lymphoma or other types of cancers.

The Air Force review will extend beyond Malmstrom to include F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming and Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota. Together the three bases operate 450 silos that house the nation’s arsenal of ground-based nuclear warheads carried by Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Former area sites not included

The study does not appear to include any former missiles and missile support crew who may have worked at the Griffiss Air Force Base in the 1980s before its realignment in the mid 1990s.

The 416th Bombardment Wing of Griffiss Air Force Base was the first base in the nation in December 1982 with a full deployment of war-ready cruise missiles. “This indeed is an historic first,” said Gen. Bennie Davis, commander in chief of the Strategic Air Command, said at the time. Officials added at the time that the air launched cruise missiles were attached to some of the 16 specially deployed B-52s at Griffiss which were armed with the nuclear weapons. The planes were stationed at the end of a Griffiss runway, fueled and ready to go at all times.

According to the book, ‘’Nuclear Battlefields,’’ published in 1985 and written by William M. Arkin and Richard W. Fieldhouse, New York’s Seneca Army Depot, Griffiss Air Force Base near Rome and Plattsburg Air Force Base were among the nation’s leaders in storing nuclear warheads.

In New York, the book states, about 1,300 warheads were once stored at the Seneca Army Depot. They included atomic mines, neutron warheads for artillery, other artillery projectiles and warheads for medium range missiles. At Griffiss Air Force Base, the book added, there were 150 bombs for B-52 bombers, 200 air-launched cruise missiles and 60 short range attack missiles from at ground targets from B-52 or FB-111 bombers. At Plattsburg Air Force Base, the book said, there were 125 bombs and 60 short range attack missiles.

Missile Community Cancer Study

The “Missile Community Cancer Study,” to be conducted by the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, will look at all ICBM wings and all Air Force personnel who support the ICBM mission. It will review environmental factors at the missile bases and silos, and examine “the possibility of clusters of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma” among missileers and those who maintained, guarded and supported the bases, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command, Gen. Thomas Bussiere, said in a statement.

The review will look at active-duty medical data and the Department of Veterans Affairs’ cancer registry data, mortality data and public cancer registries. Col. Lee Williams, the command’s surgeon general, said there was not yet a timeline for the study.

The Air Force has also established a website to address the missileer community concerns.