The yellow fever 17D vaccine and risk of malignant melanoma in the United States military.

Previous studies show that the tuberculosis and smallpox vaccine protect against melanoma because of sequence homologies they have with the melanoma antigen, HERV-K-MEL. The yellow fever 17D (YF 17D) vaccine is thought to have this property, so there is a possibility that the YF17D vaccine is able to protect against melanoma. This nested case-control study used the Defense Medical Surveillance System to assess the association between the YF17D vaccine and risk of malignant melanoma in active members of the United States military. Although point estimates hinted at a protective effect, none of the values reached a significant level. Therefore, this study concluded that in the ten year period following vaccination there is no association between the yellow fever 17D vaccine and risk of malignant melanoma in active members of the US armed forces.