Absence of Human Papillomavirus in Benign and Malignant Breast Tissue

Abstract

Background & Objective:Malignant breast tumors, which are one of the most important deadly cancers in women, like many other cancers, are proposed to be related to viruses etiologically. Proper management of breast carcinoma necessitates an identification of the etiological factors. Human Papillomavirus is considered to have an etiological role in breast carcinoma. We carried out this study to find out if Human Papillomavirus-DNA is present in the malignant and benign breast tissue in our patients. Methods:Seventy-five paraffin-embedded breast cancer tissues and 75 normal breast tissues and benign breast lesions were examined in this study (case-control) to look for Human Papillomavirus-DNA employing Nested Polymerase Chain reaction. The tissues were examined over a period of ten years in the pathology department of the Pathobiology Laboratory Center of Tehran.Results:No Human Papillomavirus-DNA was found in any of the malignant or control group specimens.Conclusion:Our results showed no evidence of Human Papillomavirus in cancerous and benign tissues, which is consistent with some other studies in English medical literature. More investigations using more specimens from different parts of the country are required to confirm the presence or absence of any connection between Human Papillomavirus and development of breast carcinoma in Iran.

Human papillomaviruses and breast cancer: A systematic review and meta‑analysis

“…The current meta-analysis confirms the wide variations existing among the included studies. Various reasons have been described for the aforementioned discrepancy, which not only affects the possibility of an association of HPV with BC, but also the distribution of the HPV genotypes: Geographic region(s) of the samples, genetic background, cultural variations such as variable sexual practices and patterns, sample types such as fresh versus FFPE samples, age of the selected populations, sensitivity of the detection methods used, condition of the preserved samples that can hamper DNA quality, the histological type of BCs (IDC versus ductal adenocarcinoma in situ), the absence of an international standard assay for HPV genotyping and the unintentional contamination of samples with the genome of other potentially oncogenic viruses, such as EBV, MMTV, CMV and HSV (2,4,7,13,31,(94)(95)(96)(97)(98).…”

“…Viral etiology of breast carcinoma has been addressed in numerous studies, but still remains controversial ( 9 ). Several viruses, including bovine leukemia virus, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV), simian vacuolating virus 40 ( 10 ), human mammary tumor virus ( 11 ), cytomegalovirus (CMV) ( 12 ), herpes simplex virus-1 (HSV), human herpes virus type-8 ( 13 ) have been regarded as potential breast oncogenic factors a number of years ago. In 1944, the discovery that MMTV caused BC in mice led researchers to investigate a possible viral contribution to BC ( 14 ).…”