Poliovirus Vaccination during Pregnancy, Maternal Seroconversion to Simian Virus 40, and Risk of Childhood Cancer

• Published in: American journal of epidemiology 2004-08, Vol.160 (4), p.306-316
• Main Authors: Engels, E. A., Chen, J., Viscidi, R. P., Shah, K. V., Daniel, R. W., Chatterjee, N., Klebanoff, M. A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Analysis. Health state; Antibodies, Viral - blood; Biological and medical sciences; BK virus; BK Virus - immunology; brain neoplasms; Cancer; Case-Control Studies; Causality; Child; Child, Preschool; Children & youth; Cohort Studies; confidence interval; Drug Contamination; Epidemiology; Female; Fibrosarcoma - epidemiology; General aspects; Hematologic and hematopoietic diseases; Hematologic Neoplasms - epidemiology; Humans; Incidence; Infant; leukemia; Leukemias. Malignant lymphomas. Malignant reticulosis. Myelofibrosis; Male; Maternal Exposure - statistics & numerical data; Medical sciences; neoplasms; Neoplasms - classification; Neoplasms - epidemiology; Nervous System Neoplasms - epidemiology; ORSA; Poliomyelitis - immunology; Poliomyelitis - prevention & control; Poliovirus; poliovirus vaccines; Poliovirus Vaccines - adverse effects; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications, Infectious - immunology; Pregnancy Complications, Infectious - prevention & control; Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; sampling-adjusted odds ratio; Seroepidemiologic Studies; Simian virus 40; Simian virus 40 - immunology; SV40; United States - epidemiology; Vaccination - statistics & numerical data; Vaccines; virus-like particle; Viruses; VLP
• ISSN: 0002-9262; 1476-6256; 0002-9262
• DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwh219

Before 1963, poliovirus vaccine produced in the United States was contaminated with simian virus 40 (SV40), which causes cancer in animals. To examine whether early-life SV40 infection can cause human cancer, the authors studied 54,796 children enrolled in the US-based Collaborative Perinatal Project (CPP) in 1959–1966, 52 of whom developed cancer by their eighth birthday. Those children whose mothers had received pre-1963 poliovirus vaccine during pregnancy (22.5% of the children) had an increased incidence of neural tumors (hazard ratio = 2.6, 95% confidence interval: 1.0, 6.7; 18 cases) and hematologic malignancies (hazard ratio = 2.8, 95% confidence interval: 1.2, 6.4; 22 cases). For 50 CPP children with cancer and 200 CPP control children, the authors tested paired maternal serum samples from pregnancy for SV40 antibodies using a virus-like particle enzyme immunoassay and a plaque neutralization assay. Overall, mothers exhibited infrequent, low-level SV40 antibody reactivity, and only six case mothers seroconverted by either assay. Using the two SV40 assays, maternal SV40 seroconversion during pregnancy was not consistently related to children’s case/control status or mothers’ receipt of pre-1963 vaccine. The authors conclude that an increased cancer risk in CPP children whose mothers received pre-1963 poliovirus vaccine was unlikely to have been due to SV40 infection transmitted from mothers to their children.