No Evidence of Human Papillomavirus in Patients with Breast Cancer in Hong Kong, Southern China

Abstract

Several studies have suggested that viral oncogenesis is one of the etiologic factors of breast cancer, while others are provocative, however, their association remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the human papillomavirus (HPV) DNA is present in the blood and tissue samples of breast cancer patients in Hong Kong. A total of 102 patients with breast tumour tissues and adjacent normal tissues were available and recruited unselectively. Both DNA and RNA were extracted from those samples, and real-time quantitative PCR was performed to detect HPV-16, with 18 sequences targeting the E6 and L1 regions. Results showed that HPV DNA sequences were absent in all the blood and breast tissues. These data argue against the role of oncogenic HPV in the pathogenesis of breast cancer. Additional lines of evidence need to be obtained in order to assess the possibility of breast cancer prevention using HPV vaccines.