Investigation of Epstein-Barr Virus in Breast Neoplasms in and around the Van Province

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Epstein Barr virus (EBV) is a type of virus associated with many types of cancer in humans. The relation between EBV and breast cancer varies in different studies. We also studied the presence of EBV in breast cancers, in our region. METHODS: In this study, breast biopsy samples from 57 patients embedded in paraffin blocks were used. Twenty of these patients were diagnosed with fibroadenoma and were used as a control group. Thirty-seven of the patients were diagnosed with invasive ductal carcinoma. Out of the 37 invasive ductal carcinoma patients, 13 were graded as grade 1, 12 as grade 2 and 12 as grade 3 based on the Nottingham modification of the Bloom Richardson system. Epstein-Barr Virus Early RNA (EBER) in situ hybridization method was applied to all biopsies to research the presence of EBV. RESULTS: The EBER in situ hybridization method shows, positive staining in 5 of 20 fibroadenomas, 4 of 13 Grade 1 invasive ductal carcinomas and 2 of 12 Grade 2 invasive ductal carcinomas. All cases with grade 3 invasive ductal carcinoma were negative. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION: Although there was no statistically significant difference in our study, we believe further studies which are more sensitive on demonstrating the presence of EBV are needed, since staining was observed in some tumor cells.

Keywords

• ebv
• breast cancer
• eber