Texas Study Links Vaccinations to Lower Risk of Childhood Cancer

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http://www.fairwarning.org/2011/02/texas-study-links-vaccinations-to-lower-risk-\

of-childhood-cancer/

Texas Study Links Vaccinations to Lower Risk of Childhood Cancer

By Stuart Silverstein on February 3, 2011

Vaccinations to protect youngsters from hepatitis B and polio also might provide

another benefit: a reduced risk of childhood cancer.

That was the conclusion of a study published in The Journal of Pediatrics that

evaluated health statistics from Texas. It found that in areas with the highest

percentages of children vaccinated for hepatitis B, rates of childhood cancer

were about 20 percent lower than in parts of the state where the vaccinations

were less common.

What’s more, in areas with high use both of polio vaccine and a vaccine series

that included hepatitis B and polio, there was a 30 percent to 40 reduction in

the risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia — a leukemia most common in childhood.

As Reuters reports, however, the link between the vaccinations and cancer

prevention remains speculative. Scheurer, an epidemiologist at the

Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and one of the study’s authors,

warned that it’s not a situation of “get your kids vaccinated and they won’t get

cancer.” Previous studies have provided mixed results, although there is a

theory that vaccinations can prevent infections that sometimes raise a child’s

risk of cancer.

The new study evaluated data from 2,800 cases of cancer diagnosed from 1995 to

2006 among children born in Texas.