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Science 7 February 1997:
Vol. 275. no. 5301, pp. 748 - 749
DOI: 10.1126/science.275.5301.748
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News & Comment

Elizabeth Pennisi

In the early 1960s, the discovery that some batches of polio vaccine administered in the 1950s were contaminated with a virus that causes tumors in experimental animals stirred worries that it might do so in humans. That concern was laid to rest by studies showing no increased cancer incidence in people likely to have received the vaccine. Now, several groups have discovered DNA from the virus, known as simian virus 40 (SV40), in certain relatively rare tumors. New epidemiological studies again show no elevated risk of cancer in people who may have received contaminated vaccine, but questions remain because evidence suggests that SV40 does infect humans and may have existed in the human population even before the polio vaccine.

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Constraints imposed by supercoiling on in vitro amplification of polyomavirus DNA.
L. Laghi, A. E. Randolph, A. Malesci, and C. R. Boland (2004)
J. Gen. Virol. 85, 3383-3388
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
UPDATE ON POLIO VACCINE CONTAMINATED BY CANCER VIRUS 30 YEARS AGO.
(1997)
Journal Watch (General) 1997, 8
   Full Text »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)