History
VAS was first recognized at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 1991. An association between highly aggressive fibrosarcomas and typical vaccine location (between the shoulder blades) was made. Two possible factors for the increase of VAS at this time were the introduction in 1985 of vaccines for rabies and feline leukemia virus (FeLV) that contained aluminum adjuvant, and a law in 1987 requiring rabies vaccination in cats in Pennsylvania. In 1993, a causal relationship between VAS and administration of aluminum adjuvanted rabies and FeLV vaccines was established through epidemiologic methods, and in 1996 the Vaccine-Associated Feline Sarcoma Task Force was formed to address the problem.
In 2003, a study of ferret fibrosarcomas indicated that this species also may develop VAS. Several of the tumors were located in common injection sites and had similar histologic features to VAS in cats. Also in 2003, a study in Italy compared fibrosarcomas in dogs from injection sites and non-injection sites to VAS in cats, and found distinct similarities between the injection site tumors in dogs and VAS in cats. This suggests that VAS may occur in dogs.
Read more about this topic: Vaccine-associated Sarcoma
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