Journal Top Ten -- COLUMNS-Asbestos -- December 2006

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TITLE: "SV40 and Human Cancer: A Review of Recent Data"

AUTHOR: Shah KV.

JOURNAL: International Journal of Cancer. 2006 Nov 27;120(2):215-223 [Epub ahead of print]

SUMMARY: An unknown proportion of formalin-inactivated poliovirus vaccine lots administered to millions of US residents between 1955 and 1963 was contaminated with small amounts of infectious simian virus 40 (SV40), a polyomavirus of the rhesus macaque. In epidemiologic studies, the increased incidence of some of the suspect tumors in the 1970s to 1980s was not related to the risk of exposure to SV40-contaminated vaccines. In summary, the most recent evidence does …