Double shot. In the 1950s, some batches of vaccine against the polio Salk contained the SV40 monkey virus.
in the beginning, it seemed impossible: a vaccine against the widely celebrated polio given millions of people in the 1950s were contaminated with a monkey virus - a virus that causes cancer in animals. But a report released Tuesday by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) soothes fears that the virus has caused a wave of cancer in the vaccinated population. It can be the cause of some rare cancers, but more research is needed to know.
theresome 40 years, SV40 was found in monkey kidney extracts used to produce the Salk vaccine. Since, concern grew that the vaccine may have triggered a cancer epidemic ( Science , 10 May, p. 1012). The virus turned cancerous cells cultured, and she kept causing tumors in animals. This heated debate in the last decade after researchers started finding SV40 DNA in four types of rare human cancers - it causes the same types in the animals - and press reports said that dozens of millions of people may have been exposed
the IOM committee examined all major epidemiological studies to see if people exposed to SV40-contaminated vaccine have a higher risk of developing cancer. Although the studies were flawed, the jury decided they were good enough to exclude a cancer epidemic. But it seems that millions of people may be infected with SV40, and the group concluded that the virus could very well come from the contaminated vaccine. Biological data also suggests but does not prove that the virus can sometimes cause human cancers. "We recognize that SV40 might at least have a carcinogenic effect, but epidemiological data do not suggest it actually did," said committee member of the IOM Steven Goodman, a biostatistician at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore . Despite this, he adds, "there is a body of evidence [on SV40 carcinogenicity] which must be taken very seriously."
Overall, the IOM report "really closes the book on focus "of past epidemiologic work, said pediatric oncologist Bob Garcea of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. Although SV40 may yet turn to cause cancer in humans, the risk, if any, is" not remotely the stadium "well-known carcinogens such as tobacco smoke and asbestos, adds Goodman.
Related Sites
IOM report
SV-40 and the vaccine against polio
Some causes of cancer
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