COVID Vaccines Linked to Several Cancer Types in New Review

"The tip of a very damaging iceberg.”

This article originally appeared on The Defender and was republished with permission.

Guest post by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

A systematic review of 69 studies identified safety signals for leukemia, lymphoma, breast and lung cancer. The paper identified mechanisms — including the spike protein and DNA contamination found in some COVID-19 vaccine types — that might be responsible for triggering cancer.

A systematic review of 69 studies and reports on COVID-19 and cancer identified a possible safety signal linking COVID-19 vaccines and SARS-CoV-2 to certain types of cancer.

The study identified safety signals for leukemia, lymphoma, breast and lung cancer. The authors of the paper, published last week in the journal Oncotarget, said their findings suggest the need for further research.

The paper identified mechanisms — including the spike protein and DNA contamination found in some COVID-19 vaccine types — that might be responsible for triggering cancer.

The authors also addressed “several recurrent themes” in the studies they examined:

• The “unusually rapid progression, recurrence, or reactivation” of preexisting conditions.

• The “atypical” appearance of cancers near the point of vaccination.

• The reactivation of dormant tumors.

Wafik El-Deiry, M.D., Ph.D., one of the co-authors, told The Defender that the paper “is the first most comprehensive presentation summarizing the world‘s literature on the subject matter of COVID vaccines, COVID infection and cancer.”

He said some of the review’s findings “look like a smoking gun” linking COVID-19 shots to cancer.

Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist for Children’s Health Defense, said the review’s findings may represent “the tip of a very damaging iceberg.”

“It is not remotely surprising that a gene-therapy rebranded as a vaccine, never tested for oncogenic safety, with severe immune dysregulating effects, injected into a billion people would correlate with an increased risk of cancers worldwide,” Jablonowski said.

El-Deiry said the review may provide insights into rising cancer rates in recent years, including an increase in so-called “turbo cancers.”

“I believe there is a risk of cancer associated with COVID vaccination,” El-Deiry said. “The magnitude of the risk remains to be more precisely defined, including the risk of hyperprogression.” Hyperprogression refers to cases where “a pre-existing tumor grows more aggressively.”

“The paper doesn’t say that COVID vaccines cause cancer, but it does argue that when the same pattern of aggressive cancer keeps appearing across different cancers and different countries, they can no longer be brushed aside,” investigative journalist Maryanne Demasi, Ph.D., said in a video posted Monday on Substack.

Review found link between COVID vaccines, aggressive onset of cancer

According to the review, a “growing number of peer-reviewed publications” have reported the appearance of diverse cancer types following COVID-19 vaccination or infection.

The time between vaccination and the onset of cancers “varied substantially,” according to the review, ranging from within 2-4 weeks to 8 months or more after vaccination or administration of a booster dose.

The authors said they conducted the review because the COVID-19 vaccines were never evaluated for carcinogenicity or genotoxicity.

They reviewed studies conducted between January 2020 and October 2025. About 43% of the studies “reported lymphoid malignancies, encompassing both lymphomas and leukemias.”

Several studies emphasized “unexpectedly rapid progression, atypical presentations, or unusually aggressive courses of disease.”

Forty-one percent of the studies identified a link between the COVID-19 vaccines and solid tumors, including melanoma, breast cancer, lung cancer, sarcomas and “organ-specific carcinomas, such as pancreatic cancer.”

Several studies “described unusually rapid onset, short-latency recurrence, or aggressive clinical progression” for these tumor types. Some of the studies “described tumor formation or recurrence at or near vaccine injection sites.”

The review cited several recent large-scale studies, including a two-year study of 8.4 million South Koreans published last year.

The South Korean study found a statistically significant link between COVID-19 vaccines and six cancer types, including breast, colorectal, gastric, lung, prostate and thyroid cancers, and a 27% higher overall cancer risk.

The review also cited a 2025 study of nearly 300,000 Italians that found cancer hospitalizations were moderately higher among COVID-19 vaccine recipients, with a particularly increased risk of bladder, breast and colorectal cancer.

The authors also cited a U.S. Armed Forces Health Surveillance Division report tracking non-Hodgkin lymphoma incidence among active-duty service members between 2017 and 2023. The report found a significant increase in some lymphomas in 2021, the year COVID-19 shots became widely available.

The authors said their findings “underscore the need for rigorous epidemiologic, longitudinal, clinical, histopathological, forensic, and mechanistic studies to assess whether and under what conditions COVID-19 vaccination or infection may be linked with cancer.”

Related articles in The Defender

• All COVID Vaccines Increase Cancer Risk, New Study Concludes

• COVID Vaccine Linked to Sharp Rise in Cancer, Italian Researchers Find

• COVID Vaccines ‘Unleashed Profound Harm’ New Peer-Reviewed Paper Says

• Young Adults Continue to Produce Spike Protein One Year After Receiving COVID Vaccine

• As Cancer Rates for Young Adults Continue to Climb, Are Doctors ‘Dancing Around the Elephant in the Room’?

• Watch: Spike Protein Leads to ‘Five Mechanisms of Damage’ in Human Body

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