TY - JOUR
T1 - Epstein-Barr virus is seldom found in mammary epithelium of breast cancer tissue using in situ molecular methods
AU - Baltzell, Kimberly
AU - Buehring, Gertrude C.
AU - Krishnamurthy, Savitri
AU - Kuerer, Henry
AU - Shen, Hua Min
AU - Sison, Jennette D.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgments We want to thank the Dr. Susan Love Research Foundation and the Avon Foundation for their support of this project. We thank Shawn Tang in the MDA pathology lab. We also thank the breast cancer patients from M. D. Anderson cancer center who donated their tissues for research.
PY - 2012/2
Y1 - 2012/2
N2 - Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been proposed as a possible etiological agent of breast cancer based on 21 reports of EBV in malignant breast tissues. Most of these studies used standard and nested solution polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques, both disadvantaged by susceptibility to contamination from laboratory EBV, and the inability to localize the signal to a specific cell type. To avoid these issues, we used in situ molecular methods of viral detection to reassess the frequency of EBV in malignant breast tissue. We used a commercial in situ hybridization (ISH) system with an EBER genome target, and a non-commercial in situ PCR (IS-PCR) method using primers specific for the BamH1 region. The assays were performed on malignant breast tissue sections from 70 breast cancer patients at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX. EBV was found in mammary epithelial cells, the cell type from which most breast cancers arise, in 2/70 (2.9%) of specimens using IS-PCR and in none of the specimens using ISH. Based on these findings that EBV was present in human mammary epithelial cells so infrequently, it is unlikely to play a causative role in most types of breast cancer.
AB - Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been proposed as a possible etiological agent of breast cancer based on 21 reports of EBV in malignant breast tissues. Most of these studies used standard and nested solution polymerase chain reaction (PCR) techniques, both disadvantaged by susceptibility to contamination from laboratory EBV, and the inability to localize the signal to a specific cell type. To avoid these issues, we used in situ molecular methods of viral detection to reassess the frequency of EBV in malignant breast tissue. We used a commercial in situ hybridization (ISH) system with an EBER genome target, and a non-commercial in situ PCR (IS-PCR) method using primers specific for the BamH1 region. The assays were performed on malignant breast tissue sections from 70 breast cancer patients at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX. EBV was found in mammary epithelial cells, the cell type from which most breast cancers arise, in 2/70 (2.9%) of specimens using IS-PCR and in none of the specimens using ISH. Based on these findings that EBV was present in human mammary epithelial cells so infrequently, it is unlikely to play a causative role in most types of breast cancer.
KW - Biomarkers
KW - Breast cancer
KW - Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)
KW - In situ hybridization (ISH)
KW - In situ polymerase chain reaction (IS-PCR)
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U2 - 10.1007/s10549-011-1841-3
DO - 10.1007/s10549-011-1841-3
M3 - Article
C2 - 22042367
AN - SCOPUS:84857911641
SN - 0167-6806
VL - 132
SP - 267
EP - 274
JO - Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
JF - Breast Cancer Research and Treatment
IS - 1
ER -