Victoria Nifakos v. HHS - multiple, primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) (2021)

Victoria Nifakos filed a petition alleging that primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) was caused or significantly aggravated by the Hepatitis A, meningococcal, varicella, and human papillomavirus vaccines she received on June 29, 2011. The petitioner was born in early 1994, making her approximately 17 years old at the time of vaccination.

She experienced symptoms including facial swelling, nausea, dizziness, and pain starting in late July and early August 2011, leading to her diagnosis of PMBCL in August 2011. The case proceeded as an off-Table claim, requiring proof of causation.

Petitioner's experts, Dr. Shoenfeld and Dr.

Gordon, proposed theories of chronic stimulation and molecular mimicry, suggesting the vaccines could have caused the lymphoma. Respondent's expert, Dr.

McClain, a pediatric hematologist and oncologist with extensive experience in lymphoma, opined that PMBCL has a genetic etiology and that there is no known connection to vaccines. The court found that Petitioner failed to establish a reputable medical theory connecting the vaccines to her PMBCL, noting that the proposed theories were unsupported and incomplete, and that PMBCL is a distinct entity with a genetic basis.

Furthermore, the court found no logical sequence of cause and effect in the medical records and that the temporal relationship was not medically appropriate to infer causation. The claim of significant aggravation was also deemed abandoned.

Ultimately, the petition was denied and dismissed.