Does inadvertent inoculation with SV40-contaminated poliovirus vaccine as neonates increase mortality from cancer?
This study investigates the long-term cancer mortality risk in individuals inadvertently exposed to SV40-contaminated poliovirus vaccines as neonates.
SIMIAN virus 40 (SV40) is a papovavirus that is latent in rhesus-monkey kidneys used for tissue culture of poliovirus. SV40 was present in vaccines administered to millions of people and was later found to be oncogenic in laboratory animals, notably newborn hamsters, and capable of transforming human cells in vitro. However, studies of large groups of people inoculated with SV40-contaminated vaccines have yielded no evidence of oncogenicity in human beings, despite continued concern.1 , 2 We studied mortality from cancer in 1073 children who were born between 1960 and 1962 and who, as newborn infants, received monovalent oral poliovirus vaccine or inactivated . . .
Mortimer et al. (Thu,) studied this question.