--- title: Leukemia: Here's How A Childhood Vaccine Helps Ward Off Cancer description: Scientists now understand why a common childhood vaccine against HiB reduces the risk of leukemia. canonical: https://time.com/3892229/childhood-vaccine-cancer-leukemia/ author: Tessa Berenson article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-21T14:22:07.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:11.227Z article:section: Health og:title: How A Common Childhood Vaccine Helps Ward Off Cancer og:description: It reduces the risk of childhood leukemia by 20% og:url: https://time.com/3892229/childhood-vaccine-cancer-leukemia/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How A Common Childhood Vaccine Helps Ward Off Cancer twitter:description: It reduces the risk of childhood leukemia by 20% twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # How a Common Childhood Vaccine Helps Ward Off Cancer > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: Science Cop: How Anti-Vaxxers Put Everyone at Risk [Watch (HLS stream): Science Cop: How Anti-Vaxxers Put Everyone at Risk](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ai82XWJ8.m3u8) (2:06)  _Published 2014-09-24. TIME's Science Cop Jeffrey Kulger takes on the misinformation coming from opponents of childhood vaccinations_  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 21, 2015 2:22 PM UTC  by [Tessa Berenson](https://time.com/author/tessa-berenson/)  ## Tessa Berenson May 21, 2015 2:22 PM UTC Scientists now understand why a common childhood vaccine reduces the risk of leukemia. Researchers previously knew that the vaccine against Haemophilus influenza type B, or HiB, reduces the risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer. But now a [new study](http://www.nature.com/articles/ni.3160.epdf?referrer%5Faccess%5Ftoken=jsRxwEN-Xu2i86KYo0tPZ9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0OyBm0FcNmP%5FL7ZuOeo-akuhGkVWSG10z2esM5MPwtrNbBNEQ306%5FrjH2Z%5F2Il6KvMds72Mz93jL3WKW3YljIgm3V-3NL4v%5F-8rkRgletK%5FFyK11zD2TklVRl%5FTi7D1Y3aUGT90M6NE4thCoab3PxZbMKQrv9mGvUd-3FQe8iQKnIc8jFcFJl19YhOOFc3MlcKOBsZwJ84BG89J8uV8gCj5&tracking%5Freferrer=well.blogs.nytimes.com) published in _Nature Immunology_ explains why this is the case. Dr. Markus Müschen and his team on the study used a mouse model and found that recurring HiB infections, which can happen easily in children who have not been vaccinated, can cause certain enzymes to activate and push common precancerous blood cells into cancer. So, vaccines against HiB infections also protect children from this path to leukemia. Müschen [told the New York ](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/20/scientists-unravel-how-a-vaccine-reduces-risk-of-a-cancer/?%5Fr=0)[_Times_](http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/20/scientists-unravel-how-a-vaccine-reduces-risk-of-a-cancer/?%5Fr=0) that the HiB vaccine, which is routinely given to children, has led to a 20% reduction in the risk for leukemia. ## Transcript So, our recent report claimed that a 2004 study withheld a link between vaccines and autism in African American boys. No surprise, the anti- vaccine crowd considered this a big win. But again and always, they're wrong. Here's why. [ MUSIC ] First, the subjects excluded from the study had no birth certificates available. Meaning data on their mother's age, race and more could not be confirmed. And that information was vital for the work the investigators were doing, More important, the people criticizing the research make the familiar mistake of confusing associated with causation. While it's true that the study did find a slightly higher rate of autism among some kids vaccinated between 24 and 36 months of age, it's almost certain that those children were already autistic and were vaccinated later as part of a basic health requirement for attending special education program [ MUSIC ] programs. If you join the Army and get a mandatory crewcut before basic training, you don't then conclude that military service causes baldness. Finally, the narrator of a disgraceful web video spreading the rumors about the study is Andrew Wakefield. The British researcher whose fraudulent 1998 paper falsely linking vaccines to autism got the entire got the entire anti- vaccine mess started. Wakefield has had his license to practice medicine revoked in the UK. And is hardly in a position to be offering opinions on anything at all. So for the billionth time, vaccines are safe, effective and vitally important. Rumor mongering, on the other hand, can kill. 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