Cancer is relatively uncommon in children, affecting about 1 in 10,000 children under 15 years old. But because of the marked decline in death caused by infections that used to rank No. 1 (e.g., diphtheria, pertussis, etc.), cancer now is the second most common cause of death in children. (Accidents are No. 1.) There has been no significant increase in leukemia in children since the start of routine vaccination in the 1940s. While it is difficult to prove that immunization never causes cancer, there is no scientific evidence of a link between the two. On the other hand, vaccination can prevent cancer, indirectly. Persons infected with hepatitis B virus are over 40 times more likely to develop cancer of the liver compared with those not infected. The vaccine prevents the infection with hepatitis B virus and this, in turn, prevents the liver cancer.

This document was published by the Canadian Paediatric society, 1997.

Posted by the Canadian Paediatric Society, July 1997.

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