Abstract

Background: Breast cancer is the most common among female, constituting about 18% of all female cancers, with 1.7 million new cases reported in the world each year. Recently some studies reported that approximately 18% of cancer cases can be linked to infectious agents including viruses particularly Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) and Epstein Barr virus (EBV).

Objective: Molecular detection of EBV and HPV types 16 and 18 in breast cancer patients in Khartoum State, Sudan.

Methods: Paraffin embedded blocks of tumor specimen from 70 Sudanese patients with breast cancer were collected from Omdurman teaching Hospital, Sudan, during the period from March to June 2018. PCR was used to investigate the presence of EBV and HPV type 16, 18 viruses in these specimens.

Results:The results show that eight out of 70 patients were positive for EBV virus (11.4%) Of these positive patients, 3(4.2%) were 30-50, 3(4.2%) were 51-80 and 2(2.8%) were 81-100 years old, respectively. Seven out of the 70 patients were positive for HPV type 18(10%). Of these positive patients, 5 (7.1%) were 30-50years old and 2 (2.9%) were 50-80 years old. None of the patients were found positive for HPV type 16. No significant differences were found between age groups as regards infection by EBV or HPV type 18 viruses.

Conclusion: The incidence of EBV and HPV types 18 in breast cancer patients in Khartoum State was documented through the molecular detection of these two virus’s DNA. Detection of EBV and HPV type18 using PCR was established. Generally, these findings are useful for future studies since there is little information available about of EBV and HPV types 16, 18 in Sudan.

Keywords: EBV and HPV16,18; Breast Cancer; Khartoum State; Sudan