OBJECTIVE:The aim of this study is to investigate the presence of human papillomavirus DNA and genotypes in breast cancer and normal breast tissue samples obtained from women from the northeast region of Brazil.METHOD:One hundred three breast cancer samples and 95 normal breast samples, as the non-malignant controls, were studied. DNA extraction was verified by human beta-globin gene amplification, and polymerase chain reaction was conducted based on HPV L1-specific consensus primers MY09/MY11 and GP5+/GP6+, followed by nested multiplex polymerase chain reaction with type-specific primers for the E6/E7 consensus region.RESULTS:Human papillomavirus DNA was detected in 51 (49.5%) breast carcinoma samples and 15 (15.8%) normal breast samples (p<0.0001). Human papillomavirus genotypes 6 and 11 were identified in 15.2% of all samples.CONCLUSIONS:The high frequency of human papillomavirus infection in breast cancer samples indicates a potential role of this virus in breast carcinogenesis in the studied participants.

Brazil. Conception, design, intellectual and scientific content of the study; critical analysis; final approval of the manuscript. ABSTRACT PURPOSE:To investigate E-cadherin immunoexpression during cervical carcinogenesis. METHODS:We assessed the immunohistochemical expression of E-cadherin in squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL -52 cases), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the uterine cervix (23 cases) and also in eight cases of cervicitis. RESULTS:The results show very different E-cadherin membrane expression levels when cervicitis (88%), SILs (73%) and SCC (17%) were compared. In SILs, higher E-cadherin loss was seen in less differentiated cells in the basal third of the epithelium. This study suggests that the absence of E-cadherin expression in the membrane is a molecular event that is observed more often in SCC of the uterine cervix than in SILs or cervicitis.CONCLUSIONS: E-cadherin is an essential molecule during the process of cervical carcinogenesis and in this context exhibits a different expression pattern according to the epithelial thickness layer.

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