Pleural mesothelioma incidence not related to SV40-contaminated polio vaccine.

2003 MAR 5 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- by Maria G. Essig, MS, ELS, senior medical writer - People vaccinated against polio with vaccines contaminated with simian virus 40 do not appear to have an increased risk of pleural mesothelioma, according to a report in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

"Poliovirus vaccines that were used during the late 1950s and early 1960s were contaminated with simian virus 40 (SV40), a monkey virus that is tumorigenic in rodents," said Howard D. Strickler and colleagues at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. "SV40 DNA sequences have been detected in some human cancers, especially pleural mesotheliomas, although results are conflicting. We examined the relationship between SV40-contaminated poliovirus vaccine exposure and subsequent rates of pleural mesothelioma in the United States."

The investigators determined the incidence of pleural mesothelioma by analyzing data obtained from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results Program from 1975 through 1997. Published surveys were used to establish the prevalence of SV40 contamination.

Males had an age-standardized pleural mesothelioma incidence rate of 1.29/10[superscript]5 person-years. For females the incidence was 0.21/10[superscript]5 person-years.

Incidence rates increased during the study period. The rate in males was 0.79/10[superscript]5 person-years in 1975, and peaked at 1.69/10[superscript]5 person-years in 1992.

"Incidence rates increased the most among males who were 75 years of age or older, the age group least likely to have been immunized against poliovirus," reported Strickler and his associates. "Incidence rates among males in the age groups most heavily exposed to SV40-contaminated poliovirus vaccine remained stable or ...