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Infections and cancer: debate about using vaccines as a cancer control tool

In 2012, Infectious Agents and Cancer commissioned a thematic series collection of articles on Prevention of HPV related cancer. The articles have attracted wide interest and stimulated debate, including about the utility of vaccines in cancer control. The application of vaccines to cancer control f...

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Autores principales: Mbulaiteye, Sam M, Buonaguro, Franco M
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3653708/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23642130
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1750-9378-8-16
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author Mbulaiteye, Sam M
Buonaguro, Franco M
author_facet Mbulaiteye, Sam M
Buonaguro, Franco M
author_sort Mbulaiteye, Sam M
collection PubMed
description In 2012, Infectious Agents and Cancer commissioned a thematic series collection of articles on Prevention of HPV related cancer. The articles have attracted wide interest and stimulated debate, including about the utility of vaccines in cancer control. The application of vaccines to cancer control fulfills a promise envisioned at the turn of the 20(th) century when remarkable experiments showed that some cancers were caused by infections. This suggested the possibility of applying infection-control strategies to cancer control. Vaccines represent the most practical cost-effective technology to prevent wide human suffering and death from many acute infectious diseases, such as small pox or polio. Hitherto applied to control of acute fatal infections, vaccines, if developed, might provide a potent way to control cancer. The articles in the HPV thematic series show success in developing and applying a vaccine against human papilloma virus (HPV). A vaccine is also available against hepatitis B virus (HBV), which causes liver cancer. These vaccines augment the tools available to control the associated cancers. Scientific endeavor continues for six other cancer-associated infections, mostly viruses. Not surprisingly, debate about the safety of vaccines targeting cancer has been triggered in the scientific community. Questions about safety have been raised for those populations where other means to control these cancers may be available. Although it is difficult to quantify risk from vaccines in individuals where other cancer control services exist, it is likely to be low. Vaccines are much safer today than before. Technological advancement in vaccine development and manufacture and improved regulatory review and efficient distribution have minimized substantially the risk for harm from vaccines. Formal and informal debate about the pros and cons of applying vaccines as a cancer control tools is ongoing in scientific journals and on the web. Infectious Agents and Cancer encourages evidence-based discussion to clarify understanding of the role of vaccines in cancer control. In a similar vein, the journal will not consider anecdotal reports and rhetorical arguments because they are unlikely to inform policy, regulation, or the public.
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spelling pubmed-36537082013-05-15 Infections and cancer: debate about using vaccines as a cancer control tool Mbulaiteye, Sam M Buonaguro, Franco M Infect Agent Cancer Editorial In 2012, Infectious Agents and Cancer commissioned a thematic series collection of articles on Prevention of HPV related cancer. The articles have attracted wide interest and stimulated debate, including about the utility of vaccines in cancer control. The application of vaccines to cancer control fulfills a promise envisioned at the turn of the 20(th) century when remarkable experiments showed that some cancers were caused by infections. This suggested the possibility of applying infection-control strategies to cancer control. Vaccines represent the most practical cost-effective technology to prevent wide human suffering and death from many acute infectious diseases, such as small pox or polio. Hitherto applied to control of acute fatal infections, vaccines, if developed, might provide a potent way to control cancer. The articles in the HPV thematic series show success in developing and applying a vaccine against human papilloma virus (HPV). A vaccine is also available against hepatitis B virus (HBV), which causes liver cancer. These vaccines augment the tools available to control the associated cancers. Scientific endeavor continues for six other cancer-associated infections, mostly viruses. Not surprisingly, debate about the safety of vaccines targeting cancer has been triggered in the scientific community. Questions about safety have been raised for those populations where other means to control these cancers may be available. Although it is difficult to quantify risk from vaccines in individuals where other cancer control services exist, it is likely to be low. Vaccines are much safer today than before. Technological advancement in vaccine development and manufacture and improved regulatory review and efficient distribution have minimized substantially the risk for harm from vaccines. Formal and informal debate about the pros and cons of applying vaccines as a cancer control tools is ongoing in scientific journals and on the web. Infectious Agents and Cancer encourages evidence-based discussion to clarify understanding of the role of vaccines in cancer control. In a similar vein, the journal will not consider anecdotal reports and rhetorical arguments because they are unlikely to inform policy, regulation, or the public. BioMed Central 2013-05-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3653708/ /pubmed/23642130 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1750-9378-8-16 Text en Copyright © 2013 Mbulaiteye and Buonaguro; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Editorial
Mbulaiteye, Sam M
Buonaguro, Franco M
Infections and cancer: debate about using vaccines as a cancer control tool
title Infections and cancer: debate about using vaccines as a cancer control tool
title_full Infections and cancer: debate about using vaccines as a cancer control tool
title_fullStr Infections and cancer: debate about using vaccines as a cancer control tool
title_full_unstemmed Infections and cancer: debate about using vaccines as a cancer control tool
title_short Infections and cancer: debate about using vaccines as a cancer control tool
title_sort infections and cancer: debate about using vaccines as a cancer control tool
topic Editorial
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3653708/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23642130
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1750-9378-8-16
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