Presence of Oncogenic Viruses: Clinical Relevance Among Egyptian Familial and Non-Familial Breast Cancer

Presenting Author: Loutfy SA Introduction: Oncogenic viruses including Mouse Mammary Tumor Virus (MMTV), Adenovirus (ADV), Polyomavirus (PoV), Human Papillomavirus (HPV), and Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) are one of the leading probable direct causes of Breast cancer (BC) worldwide. According to the National population-based registry program in Egypt (2008-2011) accounting for 32% of all female cancers. The present study aimed at evaluating the presence of these five oncogenic viruses among Egyptian familial and non-familial BC patients and their impact on the clinical course of the disease. Patients & Methods: The current study was conducted on 20 cases of BC patients without treatment and 10 healthy women as a control, aged between 18-45 years. Fresh frozen tissue and blood were obtained from BC patients, whereas only blood was obtained from control. All samples were subjected to qualitative and quantitative PCR assays to measure viral loads. The results were correlated to the clinicopathological parameters of breast cancer disease. Results: MMTV, ADV, PoV, HPV and EBV DNAs have been detected in 11 (55%),13 (65 %),8 (40%), 0 (0%) and 0 (0%) respectively, of 20 blood BC patients using qualitative PCR. PCR assay. Upon screening of 13 fresh frozen tissues, MMTV, ADV, PoV, HPV and EBV DNAs were present in 12(92%), 12(92%), 2(15.3%), 11(84.6%), and 11 (84.6) respectively of BC patients using quantitative PCR assay. Regarding viral load, ADV and HPV DNAs appeared to be the most replicative viruses out of all tested oncogenic viruses where their load ranged between 40 and 130,000 copies/ml. None of the tested viruses was detected in the control group. The presence of DNA of the 5 tested viruses was not associated with any clinicopathological parameters except larger tumor size was more common among BC patients with positive MMTV results. Conclusion: MMTV and ADV were the most common viruses present in tissue and blood of BC patients, tissue specimens are better for viral detection especially for EBV and papillomaviruses. The presence of oncogenic viral infection among young BC females could be considered as one of the risk external factor and could affect the path of BC disease and its prognosis.