Presence of human papillomavirus in breast cancer and its association with prognostic factors

Abstract

Breast cancer accounts for 16% of all female cancers worldwide, and in Venezuela, it is the leading cause of death among women. Recently, the presence of high-risk genotypes of human papillomavirus (HPV) has been demonstrated in breast cancer and has been associated with histopathological features of the tumours. In Venezuela, there is no study which determines the association between the presence of HPV in breast cancer and the histopathological features. The aim of this investigation is to evaluate the presence of HPV in the different types of breast cancer, according to their molecular classification, based on the expression of ER, PR, HER2 and Ki67. With this purpose in mind, we assessed the presence of the HPV genome in 24 breast cancer samples diagnosed with infiltrating ductal carcinoma, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) and lobular carcinoma, by the INNO-LIPA genotyping extra kit and the evaluation of the markers ER, PR, HER2, and Ki67 by immunohistochemistry. The viral genome was found in 41.67% of the total number of samples, 51 being the most frequent genotype with 30.77%, followed by types 18 and 33, with 23.08%, respectively. Most tumours were found in the group of luminal A, with a low range of Ki67 expression. The presence of HPV in breast tumours could affect their growth pattern and metastatic power.

Is HPV virus associated with human breast cancer? Time to re-examine the postulate. Egyptian Study

“…Also, Cavuslu et al [25] supported our hypothesis by proving that HPV was predictive of metastasis in their series of patients with cervical carcinoma. Contrary to our results, Fernandes et al [26] found that HPV positive cases were found mainly among groups of T1 and T2 lesions with a maximum size of 50mm, and suggested that HPV could have an important role in growth pattern and metastatic potential of breast carcinomas with better prognosis. On the other hand, HPV was not found to have any prognostic value in breast carcinoma as proved by Francis [27] .…”

Presence of Human Papillomavirus and Epstein-Barr Virus in Breast Cancer Biopsies as Potential Risk Factors

“…Positivity has been reported to range between 8-40% 14,15,[31][32][33] . Therefore, our work is the first to report high frequency of HPV in malignant breast tissue of Venezuelan female patients.…”

“…This way, integration of the viral genome and concomitant loss of E2 expression could be an important step in the carcinogenic process resulting from the altered expression of viral genes E6 and E7 , given that the E2 protein acts as viral replication negative control 7,8 . Based on this affinity of HPV for epithelial cells and its important capacity to lead to the development of cancer 10 , numerous studies have investigated the presence of HPV in breast tissue epithelial cells, with some works having reported little or no evidence 11,12 , while others have reported important infection figures in breast cancer patients 4,[13][14][15] , additionally proposing possible routes for HPV infection in breast tissue 16 . In turn, EBV is an enveloped virus, member of the Herpesviridae family, which is constituted by a linear, double-stranded DNA genome of approximately 172,000 bp 17 .…”

Presencia del virus del papiloma humano y del virus de Epstein-Barr en biopsias de cáncer de mama como posibles factores de riesgo

“…En Latinoamérica, la tasa de infección por VPH en pacientes con cáncer de mama es baja; se ha reportado un 8-40% de positividad 14,15,[31][32][33] . Por lo tanto, nuestro trabajo es el primero en reportar una alta frecuencia de VPH en el tejido mamario maligno de pacientes venezolanas.…”