association of breast cancer with human papillomavirus types 16 and 18 in the north of iran

Background objective: in iranian women, the age of breast cancer is 10-20 years earlier than women living in developed countries. moreover, hpv infection has increased among iranian women and it is more common compared to european women. the purpose of the present study is to investigate the role of hpv as a potential risk factor for breast cancer at younger ages.materials methods: this study is a case-control study that was performed on 46 specimens of breast cancer tissue and 46 samples of normal breast tissue with no malignancy. in coordination with the pathology laboratory of poursina hospital (rasht, iran), samples of breast cancer pathology templates that were available in the laboratory archives were selected after a preliminary examination of the accuracy of tissue diagnosis. after that, a tissue incision was prepared with h e staining and the cancer diagnosis was again confirmed by a pathologist. samples were cut with a microtome with disposable blades. then the tissue sample was deparaffinized and its dna was extracted. the data were analyzed by spss software version 21 (ibm spss, armonk, ny, usa) using chi-square, t-test, variance analysis and logistic regression.results: the results showed a significant difference between the two groups of women with breast cancer and without malignancy in the age of first pregnancy and gravidity. there was a significant difference in human papillomavirus type 16 infection between the two groups with breast cancer and without malignancy. the logistic regression model examined the effect of all variables and showed that infection with human papillomavirus type 16 increased the risk of breast cancer by 4.6 times, taking into account other variables.conclusion: the present study, independent of other studies, showed that human papillomavirus type 16 could be a risk factor for breast cancer. if the virus is found in an individual, it is recommended that the patient be monitored frequently and more detailed examinations for breast malignancies be performed.