Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) in breast tumors

Breast cancer represents the most frequent malignant tumor disease in women. This pathology remains the main cause of mortality and is a condition that deserves great attention; therefore, the potential involvement of viruses in its pathogenesis remains a hypothesis. The potential role of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in its pathogenesis is still a subject of discussion and ongoing research. The aim of this study is to evaluate a possible association between EBV in breast cancers in western Algeria, and to determine the clinicopathological parameters in order to specify the clinicopathological profile of tumors associated with this virus. We investigated the presence of EBV in 60 human breast cancer samples using different techniques such as: PCR, in situ hybridization of EBER sequences and immunohistochemistry for latent membrane protein 1 (LMP1). The results obtained from this study showed the presence of this virus in only 16 cases or 26.6%. While the remaining 44 samples with a percentage of 73.3% showed a negative value.