A Clinical Trial of Live Attenuated Varicella Vaccine (Biken) in Children with Malignant Diseases

The live attenuated varicella vaccine (Biken) derived from the Oka strain was used for immunization of childhood cancer patients in remission but on chemotherapy. Thirty nine patients were immunized without any severe adverse effects but 6 recipients had a small number of vesicles. Seroresponses were observed in 90% of recipients examined. During the follow-up period 6 leukemia recipients were suffered from natural varicella in family or community contacts. No vaccinee developed herpes-zoster during this study period.