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Between 1955 and 1963 nearly 90% of U.S. children under 20 years of age inadvertently received live simian virus 40 (SV40) that contaminated inactivated poliovirus vaccine. SV40 is carcinogenic in rodents. Moreover, SV40-like DNA sequences were recently found in human ependymomas, mesotheliomas, and osteosarcomas. But this retrospective epidemiologic study conducted by the National Cancer Institute found no association of these rare human tumors with recipients of SV40-contaminated poliovirus vaccine.
Birth cohorts likely to have received SV40-contaminated vaccine parenterally as infants (born 1956 to 1962) or as children (born 1947 to 1952) were each compared with a birth cohort of unexposed persons (born 1964 to 1969). Between 45 and 60 mi…