Cancer Prevention as a Benefit of Hepatitis B Vaccine By Dr. Ari
Brown, Practicing Pediatrician and Author of Baby411, Toddler411
and the soon to be release Expecting 411 My brother passed away
recently. He was only 57 years old. Like so many people whose
lives end prematurely, he died from cancer—specifically, liver
cancer (hepatocellular carcinoma)—which is often caused by a
previous Hepatitis B infection. The cancer shows up several
years later. My brother had a Hepatitis B infection about 35
years ago. Because he had other chronic health problems, no one
will ever know if this infection is what led to his cancer and
subsequent death, but I will always wonder and it will haunt me
the rest of my life. As a pediatrician, I talk about Hepatitis B
disease and vaccine with the parents of every newborn patient.
One of the really cool advances in modern medicine is the
development of cancer-preventing vaccines. Hepatitis B vaccine
has the honor of being the first cancer vaccine ever created. It
was developed in t