Detection of high and low-risk HPV DNA in archived breast carcinoma tissues from Ethiopian women
Abstract Background: HPV have been implicated in the development of cancer of the cervix, mouth and throat, anus, penis, vulva, or vagina, but it has not been much considered as a cause of breast cancer. However, a growing number of investigations have linked breast cancer to viral infections. High-risk HPV types, predominantly (HPV-16, -18, -31, -33, -35, -39, -45, -51, -52, -56, -58, and -59) are established as carcinogens in humans, while HPV-68 is probably carcinogenic. In this study we aimed to detect 19 high risk and 9 low risk HPVs from archived breast tumor tissue among Ethiopian women.Methods: In this study, 75 breast cancer patients from Tikur Anbassa Specialized Hospital in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) were included. HPV detection and genotyping were done using the novel Anyplex™ II HPV-28 Detection Assay at the Orebro University Hospital, Sweden. The AnyplexTMII PCR System detects 19 high-risk HPV types (16, 18, 26, 31, 33, 35, 39, 45, 51, 52, 53, 56, 58, 59, 66, 68, 69, 73, 82) and 9 low-risk HPV types(6, 11, 40, 42, 43, 44, 54, 61, 70). IHC for p16 was done in automated system using the Dako Autostainer Link.Results: Out of the 75 valid tests 2 were found to be positive (2.7%) for HPV. One of the cases were positive for high risk HPV16 genotype while the other were positive both for high risk HPV39 and low risk HPV6. The cell cycle protein p16 was highly expressed in the case positive for the high risk HPV16 but it was not expressed in the case positive for HPV39.Conclusion: With limited number of cases positive for HPV in this study, it is our conclusion that cervical cancer prevention strategies may help protection of breast cancer only in small groups of patients. Due to limitation of the number of participants in the study as well as possible other mechanisms of carcinogenesis, our observation should be reconfirmed using a larger set of patients and in case-control design.