This is a persistent misinformation in anti-vaccine circles and is spreading on TV sets. “Turbocancers would be caused by messenger RNA vaccines”, this is the assertion that has been flourishing in viral messages for several months. And the offensive is not only being carried out on social networks: it is broadcast without contradiction on TV where a link has been made between cancers and anti-Covid vaccination in a sequence of “Don’t touch my TV!” » on January 15 and last week on CNews. Nathalie Marquay, guest on the set of the show on January 15, said she was convinced that the antiCovid vaccine precipitated the death of her husband, Jean-Pierre Pernault, victim of thirteen strokes, the last of which was fatal. She explains that she did not want him to have a third dose while he was undergoing radiotherapy to treat his lung cancer.
On January 12 on CNews, Didier Raoult, former director of the IHU of Marseille, also responded in the affirmative to a question on the existence of a link between vaccine against Covid-19 and lymphomas. To a new question from Pascal Praud: “Are there rapid cancers developing, according to you, because of the Covid vaccine? », the doctor affirms that “the mechanism we know for the development of lymphomas is to inject DNA into the lymphocytes of the lymph nodes” (which is not the case, specialists explain to us).
“A fantasy about turbocancers and vaccines”
In his remarks, he cites a paper published in Nature on December 6 on alternative proteins induced by messenger mRNA vaccines. He explains that this article shows that “the tinkering done to make RNA last longer has created unknown proteins that wander around the body and we don’t know what they do.” An “anxious” reading of the article according to Mathieu Molimard of the French Society of Pharmacology and Therapeutics (SFPT), which suggests “undesirable effects which in practice have not been observed”. The association, which educates on pharmacology, published a note on its site to explain the content of this publication.
This “fantasy about turbocancers and vaccines is based on nothing,” denounces Mathieu Molimard, professor in the medical pharmacology department at Bordeaux University Hospital and member of the SFPT administration site. All the pharmacovigilance data, and we have never had so much on a vaccine, show that there is no increase in the risk of cancer, that there is no increase in lymphomas. »
A forum of 50 oncologists in March
This is also what a collective of fifty oncologists forcefully recalled in a column published in March 2023 on The Express. They explain “formally contest this information which is not based on any publication, on any French or international epidemiological data” on the link between antiCovid vaccines and cancer. The term turbocancer is in itself inappropriate and does not exist in the medical community, add Mathieu Mollimard and the signatories of the forum. The medical term is very aggressive or rapid cancer.
Oncologist Jérôme Barrière, co-editor of the column and member of the scientific council of the French Cancer Society, wrote again on X in reaction to the sequence with Didier Raoult. “I have not observed any worsening of cancers after vaccination,” he emphasizes, referring to his work on the impact of anti-Covid vaccination in patients undergoing chemotherapy.
Around ten cases of acceleration of lymphomas
HAS 20 minutes, it specifies what was discovered. Around ten cases of acceleration of lymphomas, clearly synchronous after a second or third dose of anti-Covid vaccine, have been described. “Nothing is hidden”, recalls the one who also emphasizes that he has no link of interest in relation to vaccination. And in these ten cases – out of billions of doses of vaccine – the people already had a lymphoma pathology, that is to say cancer of the lymph nodes. “It’s not something that caused cancer,” insists Jérôme Barrière. These cases of accelerated progression, incorrectly called turbocancer, are extremely rare. Please note that this is not true for other pathologies since we have never described the increase in breast and pancreatic cancer. »
What was observed after vaccination, with monitoring by metabolic imaging (pet-scan), was a reaction at the level of the lymph nodes, particularly axillary: “They are large, inflammatory, but it is quite simply because the immune response is triggered to create antibodies and this creates inflammation at the level of the transient lymph nodes,” explains the oncologist.
“Could this inflammation, in extremely rare cases, boost the lymphoma phenomenon? We cannot exclude it, he explains. Likewise, quite surprisingly, there have been cases of spontaneous post-vaccination regression. There have also been cases of accelerated lymphoma after anti-flu vaccination, therefore, this is not a phenomenon specific to anti-Covid vaccination. And this can also happen after an infection or any immune surge. »
“Science fiction”
To say that it “can cause” cancer “is science fiction,” he still denounces. Furthermore, Didier Raoult’s “speculations” on the RNA of the vaccine which would contain DNA and be integrated into the genome are absurd and are not based on anything. It’s dangerous. » These remarks, he believes, go “against article 13 of the National Council of the Order of Physicians”. The latter indicates that a doctor, when he speaks publicly, must report confirmed data, exercise caution and be concerned about the impact of his remarks on the public.
The oncologist also adds, in reference to Nathalie Marquay’s concerns, that there are no contraindications to a patient undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy receiving a third dose of anti-Covid vaccine. The benefit/risk ratio of vaccination always prevails.
The discovery of alternative proteins
Finally, the article from Nature explains what these alternative proteins that have been discovered do. “MRNA vaccines cause the immune cells that capture them to produce proteins that resemble those of the virus, in order to train the immune system to recognize and eliminate the virus in the event of infection,” explains the Company. of pharmacology and therapeutics in his note. The mRNAs are modified to make them more stable because enzymes break them down quickly. “These modifications can induce an error in the reading of mRNAs with a shift which can lead to the production of alternative proteins which are generally smaller,” continues the SFPT.
“What is certain is that these proteins did not induce an autoimmune reaction because we have not observed one with RNA vaccines,” adds Mathieu Molimard. They did not induce unexpected adverse effects compared to what was expected. » The pharmacology professor recalls that, as with any medication, it is not possible to know all the molecular interactions of the active ingredients. “It is the role of development to measure effectiveness, side effects and undesirable effects and of pharmacovigilance, after marketing, to monitor the occurrence of undesirable effects to continuously assess the risk in relation to the benefit”, he emphasizes.
“Despaired by the lack of reaction from the authorities”
This article, summarizes the SFPT, asks the question of future uses of messenger RNA technology to reduce the read shift that can create these alternative proteins. It offers solutions to reduce the risk of mistranslation of messenger RNAs and reduce the risk of adverse effects that could possibly be linked to these proteins.
Mathieu Molimard and Jérôme Barrière both warn of the risks posed by this repeated false information. The pharmacology professor says he is “despaired by the lack of reaction from the authorities in the face of massive and repeated disinformation which endangers lives”. When the oncologist explains that he faces in his daily life “the porosity of this misinformation which contributes to an ambient hubbub and can have consequences on vaccine hesitancy”.