Study On The Relationship Between Human Papillomavirus And Breast Cancer

Human papillomomaviruses (HPVs) constitute a group of more than 200 different genotypes. They are a kind of small virus with DNA double chain. It has been well established that high-risk HPVs, such as HPV 16 and HPV 18, is asscociated with the development of cervical cancer. Many studies have found that HPVs are asscociated with a variety of tumors, such as head and neck cancer, oral cancer, skin cancer, lung cancer, esophageal cancer, and colorectal cancer, howerever whether HPVs play a role in breast cancer remains controversial. As is the most commonly diagnosed cancer type in women, if we can define the association of HPV infection and breast cancer, it is significant to the tertiary prevention of breast cancer.Purpose:To investigate the HPV prevalence in patients with breast cancer, to analyse the relationship between HPV infection and clinical and pathological features of breast cancer specimens.Method:Tumor tissue and tumor-adjacent normal tissue samples were obtained from 62 female patients with breast cancer. HPV DNA was detected by means of nested PCR. PCR assay with the viral L1 and E6/E7 onvogenes as the primer target region is amplificated, respectively. According to results of the HPV detection and typing, the relationship between HPV infection and clinical and pathological features of breast cancer specimens was analysed.Result:HPV DNA was detected in 4 of 62 tumor tissues, and no HPV DNA was detected in tumor-adjacent tissue. We found that three of the four breast cancer tissues were positive for HPV 16 DNA, and one for HPV 18. The positive rate was 3.2%, but the HPV prevalence in tumor tissues was not much higher than in tumor-adjacent tissues. There was no significant difference in HPV detection rate (P> 0.05). Combined with some clinical and pathological features, such as age, menopausal status, ER, PR, Her2, lymph nodes and clinical stage, no significant statistically difference was found.Conclusion:Detection of HPV DNA in breast cancer tissue may not confirm the association of HPV infection in breast cancer.