Low presence of papillomavirus and its lack of correlation with clinicopathological factors in breast cancer: a case control study

Manoochehr Makvandi; Mohammad Rashno; Ebrahim Faghihloo; Shahram Bagheri; Saeed Hesam; Habibollah Mirzaei; Ali Ramezani

doi:10.18502/ijm.v15i4.13513

Manoochehr Makvandi nfectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center, Health Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
Mohammad Rashno Cellular and Molecular Research Center, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
Ebrahim Faghihloo Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Shahram Bagheri Department of Pathology, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
Saeed Hesam Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, Faculty of Public Health, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
Habibollah Mirzaei Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center, Health Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran
Ali Ramezani Infectious and Tropical Diseases Research Center, Health Research Institute, Ahvaz Jundishapur University of Medical Sciences, Ahvaz, Iran

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18502/ijm.v15i4.13513

Keywords: Breast malignant tumor; Human papillomavirus; Prognostic factors; Nested polymerase chain reaction; Prevalence

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Breast cancer is currently the most commonly diagnosed neoplasm in women worldwide. There is evidence that human papillomavirus (HPV) infection may play a key role in breast cancer aggressiveness, but results are conflicting across studies. The aim of this study was to investigate the presence of the HPV viral genome in benign and malignant breast tissue samples and its clinicopathological characteristics of cancer.

Materials and Methods: In this case-control study, 100 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) of breast cancer and 100 blocks of non-cancerous breast tissue were selected as a control group from the pathology department of Imam Khomeini Hospital in Ahvaz from 2020-2022. The presence of HPV was detected using nested PCR including MY09/11 primers and sequencing were performed for virus genotyping.

Results: The present study enrolled 100 subjects each in two cancer and control groups with a mean age of 52.81±13.23 and 35.77±11.65, respectively. The risk of cancer in HPV-infected patients is almost 5 times higher than in HPV-negative individuals, it is not statistically significant (OR =4.99, 95% CI 0.35 to 72.15, p=0.238). The prevalence of HPV in the cancer and control groups was 7% and 1%, respectively and HPVs detected in two groups were of the HPV 16 genotype. Although the chance of ER and PR expression, lymphvascular involvement, perineural invasion, and higher tumor grade was higher in HPV-positive subjects than in HPV-negative subjects, this was not statistically significant (OR>1, p>0.05).

Conclusion: Based on studies reporting the existence of sequences of different high-risk HPV types (oncogenes) in breast cancer tissues, this study confirmed the hypothesis of a possible infectious cause in the development of breast cancer. So far, however, the results have been controversial and inconclusive. Further studies with large sample sizes are needed to demon- strate the link between HPV and breast cancer.