association of epstein barr virus infection (ebv) with breast cancer in rural indian women协会的eb病毒(ebv)感染与乳腺癌在印度农村妇女.pdf

Association of Epstein Barr Virus Infection (EBV) with Breast Cancer in Rural Indian Women 1 1 2 3 1 Deepti Joshi , Munira Quadri , Neha Gangane , Rajnish Joshi , Nitin Gangane * 1 Department of Pathology, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagram, Maharashtra, India, 2 Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagram, Maharashtra, India, 3 Department of Medicine, Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagram, Maharashtra, India Abstract Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy affecting females worldwide but conventional risk factors are able to explain only a small proportion of these cases. A possible viral etiology for breast cancer has been proposed and Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is a widely researched candidate virus. The aim of the present study, first one of its kind from India, was to determine if there is a greater association of EBV infection with breast cancer patients as compared to patients with benign breast diseases. Methods: We looked for expression of Epstein-Barr Virus Nuclear Antigen-1 (EBNA-1) in breast cancer tissue specimens by employing immunohistochemistry (IHC). We also measured levels of anti-EBNA-1 Immunoglobulin (IgG) antibodies in stored sera of these patients using commercial Enzyme linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) kit. Patients with benign breast diseases were used as a comparison group for both immunohistochemical and serological analysis. Results: 58 cases of malignant breast disease and 63 of benign breast disease (controls) were included in the study. Using manufacturer determined cut-off of 3 IU/ml, 50/55 tested (90.9%) cases and 27/33 tested (81.8%) controls were seropositive for anti-EBNA-1 IgG. Mean antibody levels were significantly higher for c