The Association of Epstein-Barr virus with the Prognostic Factors among Sudanese Females with Breast Cancer

Abstract

This is a descriptive retrospective study carried out in Radiation and Isotope Center-Khartoum, Sudan, during the period of February 2012 to July 2012. The study aimed to detect the association of Epstein- Barr virus expression and ER, PR, and HER2 receptors among Sudanese females with Breast Cancer. The age of the studied group ranged from 20 to 80 years. Fifty formalin fixed paraffin wax embedded tissue blocks were selected from women patients with breast cancer these consisted of 43 with invasive ductal carcinoma, 1 with invasive papillary carcinoma, 2 with mucinous carcinoma, 2 with ductal carcinoma in situ and 2 with medullary carcinoma. Tissue sections were stained using immunohistochemistry methods for detection of EBV marker. SPSS computer program was used to analyze the obtained data and results. The results showed that the majority of breast cancer patients have invasive ductal carcinoma (86%) ranging from 31-40 years of age. The majority of cases were high grade (56%). 64% showed positive expression for ER, 49% for PR, 54% for Her-2 and 34% for EBV among breast cancer types. As well as 28% were positive for EBV among the age group ranging from 31-50, 34% of tumor grade, 18% of ER , 14% of PR and 22% were positive for both EBV and Her-2 while 12% were EBV positive Her-2 Negative. On the basis of these findings the study concluded that; the expression of EBV were statistically significant among Sudanese women with breast cancer (P value = 0.04) and age (P value=0.02). No association between the ER, PR, HER2 markers and EBV expression as results indicated.