Exhibit 115

Contamination of poliovirus vaccines with simian virus 40 (1955–1963) and subsequent cancer rates

Exhibit 115 · Cohort study

Contamination of poliovirus vaccines with simian virus 40 (1955–1963) and subsequent cancer rates

Last, mesotheliomas were not significantly associated with exposure, although the cohorts studied have not yet reached the age at which these tumors tend to occur.

Using SEER registry and national mortality data, the study compared birth cohorts likely to have received contaminated vaccine with unexposed cohorts. It found no significant excess of ependymoma, other brain cancers, osteosarcoma or mesothelioma. Exposure was assigned by birth year; the study had no individual vaccination records.

Source: Howard D. Strickler, Philip S. Rosenberg, Susan S. Devesa, Joan Hertel, Joseph F. Fraumeni Jr., James J. Goedert; JAMA 279(4):292–295
Date: 28 January 1998
Quoted from: Abstract, Results (JAMA 1998;279(4):292-5; PubMed PMID 9450713)
Grade: Peer-reviewed
Document: https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.279.4.292
Accessed: 2026-11-09
Cited by: Findings citing this exhibit

Cited by

Finding MED-7.4: Primary record The Institute of Medicine found the evidence inadequate to accept or reject a link between contaminated polio vaccine and cancer. It found strong evidence that SV40 is a transforming virus and contaminated some 1955 to 1963 polio vaccine, and moderate evidence that vaccine exposure caused human SV40 infection.
Finding MED-8.8: Open question Whether SV40 from contaminated polio vaccine caused cancer in people has never been settled.