Background: Breast cancer is currently the most common neoplasm diagnosed in women globally. There is a growing body of evidence to suggest that human papillomavirus (HPV) infection may play a key role in invasiveness of breast cancer. The aim of this study was to determine the presence of HPV in patients with breast cancer and its possible association with cancer progression.
Methods: Breast specimens were collected from 72 patients with breast cancer and 31 healthy controls. The presence of HPV was investigated by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and genotyping was performed for positive cases. We also evaluated the viral factors such as E6, E2, and E7 in HPV positive cases. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA (and Real-time PCR techniques were used to measure the expression level of anti-carcinogenic genes, such as p53, retinoblastoma (RB), breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility gene (BRCA1, BRCA2) and inflammatory cytokines, including tumor necrosis factor α (TNF-α), transforming growth factor β (TGF-β), nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB), and different interleukins [ILs] (IL-1,IL6, and IL-17).
Results: The HPV DNA was detected in 48.6% of breast cancer samples, whereas only 16.1% of controls were positive for HPV. We observed statistically significant differences between breast cancer patients and HPV presence (P = 0.003). HPV type 18 was the most prevalent virus genotype in patients. The expression of P53, RB, BRCA1, and BRCA2 were decreased in patients with HPV-positive breast cancer as compared to HPV-negative breast cancer and healthy controls. (All P-values were less than 0.05). The presence of the HPV was associated with increased inflammatory cytokines (IL-1, IL-6, IL-17, TGF-β, TNF-α, and NF-kB) and tumor progression.
Conclusion: The present study demonstrated that HPV infection may implicate in the development of some types of breast cancer.
Keywords: Breast cancer; Human papilloma virus; Inflammation; Risk factor; Tumor development.