Increasing evidence for a human breast carcinoma virus with geographic differences

• Published in: Cancer 2004-08, Vol.101 (4), p.721-726
• Main Authors: Levine, Paul H., Pogo, Beatriz G.‐T., Klouj, Afifa, Coronel, Stephanie, Woodson, Karen, Melana, Stella M., Mourali, Nejib, Holland, James F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animals; Animals, Wild; Biological and medical sciences; breast carcinoma; Breast Neoplasms - epidemiology; Breast Neoplasms - virology; Carcinoma - epidemiology; Carcinoma - virology; DNA, Viral - analysis; epidemiology; Female; Geography; Humans; Mammary Neoplasms, Animal - virology; mammary tumor virus; Mammary Tumor Virus, Mouse - genetics; Mammary Tumor Virus, Mouse - pathogenicity; Medical sciences; Mice; Mouse mammary tumor virus; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Prevalence; Rodent Diseases - virology; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Tumors; Tunisia - epidemiology; wild mice
• ISSN: 0008-543X; 1097-0142
• DOI: 10.1002/cncr.20436

BACKGROUND An early immunologic study suggesting that a virus similar to the mouse mammary tumor virus (MMTV) was associated highly with breast carcinoma in Tunisian patients, compared with patients in the United States, led the authors to examine different breast carcinoma populations by using more current molecular techniques. METHODS Thirty‐nine paraffin blocks were selected for sequencing of the 250‐base pair segment of the MMTV from patients with breast carcinoma who were seen and treated at the Institut Salah Azaiz in Tunisia. Fifteen of those blocks were examined under code by a second laboratory, which used a different methodology and was blinded to the results of the first laboratory, and 14 blocks were analyzed successfully. RESULTS The comparison of Tunisian patients and patients from other countries clearly showed a significantly higher proportion of tumors with MMTV‐like sequences in the Tunisian series of patients. There was complete reproducibility of data between the two laboratories. Using the results from the first laboratory and similar studies from the literature, detection of the MMTV‐like env gene sequence showed an important geographic pattern with a significantly higher percentage of positive patients with breast carcinoma in Tunisia (74%) compared with patients with breast carcinoma in the United States (36%), Italy (38%), Australia (42%), Argentina (31%), and Vietnam (0.8%) CONCLUSIONS The findings provided increased evidence for a human breast carcinoma virus with geographic differences in prevalence. The geographic differences were compatible with studies of MMTV in wild mice; thus, the data were plausible biologically. Cancer 2004. © 2004 American Cancer Society. There is increasing evidence from multiple laboratories that there is a breast carcinoma virus in humans that resembles the mouse mammary tumor virus. The results of this study indicated that this putative virus has a geographic pattern resembling oncogenic viruses that are not easily transmissible, such as human T‐cell lymphotropic virus type I and human herpesvirus type 8.