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  1. 1 Is DIPG a rare side effect of any Covid 19 vaccines what about in any of the product monographs
  2. 2 Have any studies compared DIPG rates before vs after COVID vaccination rollout?

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Have any studies compared DIPG rates before vs after COVID vaccination rollout?

Sep 22, 2026 · 14 sources used · OpenNeedle synthesis
No study comparing DIPG rates before versus after the COVID-19 vaccination rollout was found in the retrieved records.

The evidence block contains no epidemiological study that tracks DIPG incidence over time, let alone one that compares the pre-vaccination era to the post-vaccination era. The records that mention DIPG are all about treatment: oncolytic viruses [1], radiotherapy [2, 3, 8, 12], chemotherapy [2, 3, 7, 14], CAR T cells [10, 11, 13], and molecular characterization [4, 5, 6, 9]. None of them report population incidence rates or time trends.

What this means for your question: the retrieval did not surface a single paper that asks whether DIPG became more common after 2021. That is not proof that no such study exists anywhere, but it is a strong signal that this question has not been a research priority. A study that compared DIPG rates before and after the vaccine rollout would need population-based cancer registry data with consistent case definitions across years, and it would need to account for changes in diagnostic practices (more biopsies, better imaging) that could artifactually raise case counts. No such analysis appears in these records.

The honest call: the evidence is not clear because the question has not been studied in the retrieved literature. A registry-based study comparing DIPG incidence in 2015-2019 versus 2021-2025 would settle it, but that study is not in these records.

My call: the evidence does not answer whether DIPG rates changed after the COVID-19 vaccination rollout. Confidence: not clear.

Keep digging

Sources used 14

  1. The oncolytic adenovirus Ad-TD-nsIL12 in primary or progressive pediatric IDH wild-type diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma results of two phase I clinical trials Nature Communications (2025) Thin

    This study reports the results of two Phase I clinical trials evaluating the safety and preliminary efficacy of the oncolytic adenovirus Ad-TD-nsIL12 in pediatric patients with IDH wild-type diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, demonstrating safety and some evidence of efficacy in …

    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-62260-5
  2. Prospective Evaluation of Radiotherapy With Concurrent and Adjuvant Temozolomide in Children With Newly Diagnosed Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics (2010) Thin

    This study evaluates the outcomes of radiotherapy combined with concurrent and adjuvant temozolomide in children with newly diagnosed diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, revealing no significant improvement in survival compared to radiotherapy alone.

    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2009.04.031
  3. Radiotherapy with concurrent and adjuvant temozolomide in children with newly diagnosed diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma Journal of Neuro-Oncology (2011) Thin

    This study evaluates the efficacy and toxicity of radiation therapy combined with temozolomide chemotherapy in children with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, finding no significant improvement in outcomes compared to radiotherapy alone and highlighting the associated higher tox…

    DOI: 10.1007/s11060-011-0681-7
  4. Characterization of a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma cell line: implications for future investigations and treatment Journal of Neuro-Oncology (2012) Thin

    This study establishes a human glioma cell line derived from a surgical biopsy of a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) patient, demonstrating its tumorigenic potential in athymic rats and providing a valuable model for future therapeutic investigations.

    DOI: 10.1007/s11060-012-0973-6
  5. Recurrent activating ACVR1 mutations in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma Nature Genetics (2014) Thin

    This study identifies recurrent activating mutations in the ACVR1 gene in diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), suggesting new therapeutic targets for this otherwise incurable disease.

    DOI: 10.1038/ng.2925
  6. The international diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma registry: an infrastructure to accelerate collaborative research for an orphan disease Journal of Neuro-Oncology (2017) Thin

    The study presents the establishment and operational framework of the International Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma Registry (IDIPGR), which aims to enhance collaborative research and improve outcomes for patients with this rare and aggressive brain tumor by providing a central…

    DOI: 10.1007/s11060-017-2372-5
  7. A pediatric brain tumor consortium phase II trial of capecitabine rapidly disintegrating tablets with concomitant radiation therapy in children with newly diagnosed diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas Pediatric Blood & Cancer (2017) Thin

    This phase II trial evaluated the efficacy of capecitabine rapidly disintegrating tablets combined with radiation therapy in improving progression-free survival in children with newly diagnosed diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas, but found no significant improvement in outcomes c…

    DOI: 10.1002/pbc.26832
  8. Hypofractionated conformal radiotherapy for pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG): A randomized controlled trial Radiotherapy and Oncology (2014) Thin

    A randomized controlled trial comparing hypofractionated conformal radiotherapy to conventional fractionation in newly diagnosed pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), showing similar survival outcomes with a shorter treatment course but without statistical non-infer…

    DOI: 10.1016/j.radonc.2014.01.013
  9. Clinical, Radiologic, Pathologic, and Molecular Characteristics of Long-Term Survivors of Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG): A Collaborative Report From the International and European Society for Pediatric Oncology DIPG Registries Journal of Clinical Oncology (2018) Thin

    This multinational registry study analyzes clinical, radiologic, histologic, and molecular data from children and young adults with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) to identify factors associated with long-term survival and very long-term survival, including distinct hist…

    DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2017.75.9308
  10. Engineered CXCR3-A expression enhances B7-H3-targeting CAR T cell migration and efficacy against diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma Nature Communications (2025) Thin

    Engineering CXCR3-A expression in B7-H3-targeted CAR T cells enhances their migration toward CXCR3 ligands, increases intracerebroventricular trafficking to DIPG tumors, and improves anti-tumor efficacy in orthotopic DIPG mouse models, suggesting a CXCR3-A–mediated positive feed…

    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-64861-6
  11. Preclinical efficacy of combinatorial B7-H3 CAR T cells and ONC206 against diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma Thin

    Preclinical evaluation shows that combining B7-H3 CAR T cells with ONC206 induces strong tumor cell killing in multiple DIPG models in vitro and improves survival in two orthotopic DIPG mouse models, while preserving CAR T cell function and tolerability.

    DOI: 10.1101/2025.09.01.673023
  12. Survival benefit for patients with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) undergoing re-irradiation at first progression: A matched-cohort analysis on behalf of the SIOP-E-HGG/DIPG working group European Journal of Cancer (2017) Thin

    This study analyzes the survival benefit and toxicity of re-irradiation in children with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) at first progression, demonstrating a significant median overall survival advantage for those undergoing re-irradiation compared to a matched cohort r…

    DOI: 10.1016/j.ejca.2016.12.007
  13. Intracerebroventricular B7-H3-targeting CAR T cells for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma: a phase 1 trial Nature Medicine (2025) Thin

    A first-in-human phase 1 trial shows that repetitive intracerebroventricular delivery of autologous B7-H3 CAR T cells is tolerable in children and young adults with DIPG, with signs of locoregional CAR T cell activity and potential clinical benefit prompting further multisite tr…

    DOI: 10.1038/s41591-024-03451-3
  14. Repurposing the anti-epileptic drug sodium valproate as an adjuvant treatment for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma PLOS ONE (2017) Thin

    This study investigates the potential of sodium valproate, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, as an adjuvant treatment for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) by demonstrating its ability to enhance the cytotoxic effects of carboplatin in DIPG cells through increased histone a…

    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0176855

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