- By Shivangi Sharma
- Wed, 01 Oct 2025 03:37 PM (IST)
- Source:JND
A controversial new study by South Korean researchers has ignited debate after claiming that Covid-19 vaccines may increase the risk of developing six types of cancer, including lung, breast, and prostate. The research, published in Biomarker Research, a journal owned by Springer Nature, analysed the health data of more than 8.4 million adults between 2021 and 2023.
According to the authors, orthopaedic surgeons and intensive care physicians, individuals who had received at least one Covid vaccine, including boosters, showed higher rates of cancer diagnoses within a year compared to the unvaccinated.
The study reported an estimated 35 per cent increased risk of thyroid cancer, 34 per cent for gastric cancer, 53 per cent for lung cancer, and 68 per cent for prostate cancer. Breast and colorectal cancers were also allegedly elevated by 20 per cent and 28 per cent, respectively. The findings further suggested that mRNA vaccines, such as those produced by Pfizer and Moderna, were linked to a higher risk of thyroid, colorectal, lung, and breast cancers.
The researchers claimed men were more vulnerable to gastric and lung cancers, while women had a greater risk of thyroid and colorectal cancers. The study admitted it did not provide a biological explanation for how vaccines could cause cancer, relying instead on the timing of diagnoses within one year of vaccination.
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Experts Dismiss Findings As “Alarmist”
Global health specialists have universally rejected the claims, cautioning that the findings are premature and possibly misleading. Johns Hopkins University's Dr. Benjamin Major dismissed the findings categorically, observing that cancer usually takes many years to develop, not months.
"Cancer doesn't develop as fast as the studies would have you believe. To show any vaccine is carcinogenic, long-term observation is needed," Dr. Major clarified. He also noted that official statistics by the Korean Cancer Association indicated no sudden spike in cancer cases by 2022 despite high rates of national vaccination. "If vaccines were in fact the culprit, we should already see a sharp spike. That did not occur," he said.
Other experts and scholars repeated these concerns, highlighting that earlier assertions of association between Covid vaccines and so-called "turbo cancers" had already been debunked. Researchers have repeatedly underlined that no trustworthy evidence exists to prove that vaccines interfere with tumour suppressors or induce carcinogenic pathways.
Political And Social Backdrop
The release of the study follows closely on Reform UK distancing itself from Aseem Malhotra, a discredited vaccine critic and advisor to US Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr., who had recently proposed that Covid vaccines were responsible for cancers suffered by members of the British royal family.
Although the Korean research has been noted for being published in an established journal, experts are advising that conclusions not be drawn until more rigorous and sustained research.