Human papillomavirus is not associated with breast carcinoma

Breast Cancer Risk and Human Papillomavirus Infection: A Bradford Hill Criteria Based Evaluation

BACKGROUND

The association between human papillomavirus (HPV) and human breast cancer (BC) has already been thoroughly studied worldwide with contradictory findings. Although the researchers have tried to minimize the conflict using statistical meta-analysis, because of its shortcomings, there is still a need to evaluate the correlation between HPV and BC using any additional method.

OBJECTIVES

This study was launched to investigate the correlation between HPV and BC through the application of Bradford Hill criteria postulates.

METHODS

Population-wide studies associating HPV with BC were searched using the PubMed database. Then, the information of HPV burden in BC, normal/benign samples was analyzed, and ultimately Bradford Hill criteria postulates were applied on the collected evidence to explore the relationship between HPV and BC. In addition, to make the outcomes more authentic, we also reviewed the methodologies of previous studies to address the propensity of false results.

RESULTS

After a careful evaluation of the obtained data against major Bradford Hill criteria postulates, it was noted that all these postulates including strength, consistency, biological gradient, temporality, plausibility, experiment, specificity, and analogy were not fulfilled.

CONCLUSION

The results of the present study have failed to establish a casual association between HPV and BC rather suggested HPV as a cause-effective agent or at least a co-participant in the pathogenesis of BC. The weakness of association especially the low level of consistency across studies, and the lack of specificity of effect, there is a need for more experiments concerning Bradford Hill criteria postulates.

HPV infection and breast cancer. Results of a microarray approach

OBJECTIVES

Human papilloma virus (HPV) has been implicated in several types of epithelial cancer. The role of HPV in breast carcinogenesis has been a matter of debate fueled by conflicting reports in recent years. The aim of this study is to identify the prevalence of breast and cervical HPV infection in cancer patients by using a modern microarray approach.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

In the present prospective study, 201 breast cancer patients were included. For each patient a detailed medical history was taken and during the operation, under sterile conditions, samples were collected, from the tumour, the healthy adjacent breast tissue and any positive sentinel lymph nodes. In addition, for each patient a cervical sample was also collected. All samples were analysed for DNA of 24 types of HPV using a microarray technique.

RESULTS

Despite the high sensitivity of the technique used, no HPV DNA was identified in any of the breast or lymph node samples. Our analysis showed that patients with HPV positive cervical samples (28 cases) were more likely to have tumors with positive progesterone receptors (p=0.041) and were also more likely to have two or three positive lymph nodes (p=0.002).

CONCLUSION

In the present study, a combination of careful sample collection and a very sensitive microarray approach showed no correlation between HPV and breast cancer. However some characteristics of the breast tumors were different among patients with HPV DNA in their cervical samples.

No Significant Association between Human Papillomavirus and Breast Cancer, Sanandaj, Iran

Background and Objective:

Any role of human papillomavirus (HPV) in the development of breast cancer is conjectural. The aim of this study was to investigate possible links between HPV and breast cancer in women, Sanandaj, Iran.

Methods:

In this case-control study, 70 formalin fixed and paraffin embedded blocks of breast malignant tumors as a case group and 70 blocks of lesions without malignancy were selected as controls. Sections about 10 µm thick were prepared. After removing the paraffin, DNA was extracted. Samples were tested by PCR using general and high-risk specific HPV primers.

Results:

All 70 malignant breast tumors (cases) were invasive ductal carcinomas, and of the 70 controls, 17 (24.3%) were fibrocystic tumors and 53 (75.7%) fibroadenomas. The age range of women in the case group was 25-72 years old and in the control group It was13-66 years. Using HPV general primers two samples were positive in the case group, confirmed to be HPV-18 using high-risk specific primers.

Conclusion:

No statistically significant association was found between breast cancer and HPV. It is necessary to confirm this result by further investigations in other populations.

More than 97% of human papilloma virus type 16 (HPV-16) was found with chrysotile asbestos & relatively smooth round tumor outline, and less than 3% was found with HPV-18 and tremolite asbestos & irregular sawtooth-like zigzag outline in breast cancer tissues in over 500 mammograms of female patients: their implications in diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of breast cancer

In the past, Human Papillomavirus Type 16 (HPV-16) was considered to be the main cause of cancer in the oropharynx and genital organs. Cervical cancer of the uterus is the most well-known cancer associated with HPV-16. Among the oncogenic HPVs, types 16 and 18 are most responsible for the majority of the HPV-caused cancers. Recently, using EMF Resonance Phenomenon between 2 identical substances, we non-invasively measured HPV-16 and HPV-18 among 25 physicians and 25 dentists and found that all 50 have HPV-16 in oral cavities and oropharynx but not HPV-18. However most dentists have a stronger infection than physicians. Among them were 2 female dentists with breast cancer containing HPV-16 and strong infections of HPV-16 in the oral cavities and oropharynx. When the author checked their breast cancer positive areas as well as the mammograms of cancer positive areas, Chrysotile Asbestos co-existed with an infection of HPV-16. We then examined over 500 published mammograms of women with malignant breast cancer published by other institutes, and we found HPV-16 in more than 97% and HPV-18 in less than 3% of the breast cancer mammograms examined. Less than 0.4% of cases were found as a variety of combination of HPV-16 & HPV-18. We also discovered that breast cancer with HPV-16 always co-exists with increased Chrysotile Asbestos deposits, and the outline of the breast cancer positive area is a relatively smooth and round or oval shape, and breast cancer with HPV-18 always co-exists with increased Tremolite Asbestos, where the tumor outline is an irregular saw-tooth like zigzag pattern. Based on these findings, better methods of diagnosis, treatment and prevention with a vaccine can be developed.

Prevalence of human papillomavirus in breast cancer: a systematic review

OBJECTIVE

We performed a systematic review and meta-analyses to estimate the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV) in breast carcinoma and to explore the reasons for the ongoing controversies about this issue.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A comprehensive search of the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, CANCERLIT, LILACS, and EMBASE databases was performed for papers published from January 1990 to January 2011. The medical subject heading terms were searched for the following: breast neoplasm, breast lesions, breast cancer, and HPV or human papillomavirus. Statistical analysis was performed using REVMAN 5.0.

RESULTS

Twenty-nine primary studies, including 2211 samples, were analyzed. Overall, HPV prevalence in patients with breast cancer was 23.0% (95% CI, 21.2%-24.8%). The prevalence of HPV ranged from 13.4% (95% CI, 10.2%-16%) in Europe to 42.9% (95% CI, 36.4%-49.4%) in North America and Australia. The prevalence of HPV in controls was 12.9%. Combinations of 9 case-control studies showed that breast cancer was associated with HPV (odds ratio, 5.9; 95% CI, 3.26-10.67).

CONCLUSION

We found a high prevalence of HPV DNA in breast cancer. There is strong evidence to suggest that HPV has an important role in the development of breast cancer.

Absence of human papillomavirus in patients with breast cancer in north-west China

The purpose of this study was to investigate the human papillomavirus (HPV) infection rate in malignant and benign breast tumours in north-west Chinese patients. Unselected fresh tissue samples were extracted from 48 invasive breast carcinoma and 30 benign breast tumours between August 2009 and August 2010. We used real-time fluorescence quantitative PCR (FQ-PCR) and in situ hybridization to detect HPV 6, 11 and 16, 18 sequences targeting the E6, E7 open-reading frame. The presence of HPV 6, 11 was only demonstrated in the 3 (10%) benign phyllodes tumour specimens. No HPV infection was detected in all the 48 invasive breast carcinoma. Specifically, all the positive specimens were detected by in situ hybridization but not in FQ-PCR. In addition, we found that the positive specimens became negative after 3 months frozen at -70°C. HPV was absent in patients with breast tumours in north-west China.