Epstein-Barr virus and breast cancer tissues
Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), the virus that causes infectious mononucleosis, is very common. Nearly all of us are infected with EBV by adulthood and remain chronically infected for life, usually without any subsequent problems. However, a small percentage of persons later develop certain cancers (lymphomas, stomach cancer, nasal cancer) in which EBV is present and is thought to have played a role in tumor development.
Research studies have suggested a link between EBV and some breast cancers, but this relationship has been confusing, since research findings have been variable. This variability occurs in part because of technical laboratory difficulties in locating EBV in the breast tumors and understanding how it functions there, and in part because few studies have looked to see which patients are most likely to have EBV in their tumors.
With pilot funds from both and the California Breast Cancer Research Program and the National Cancer Institute, our inter-disciplinary group developed five new laboratory tests to find EBV in stored breast cancer tissues so as to overcome the previous technical limitations. Then, after applying these tests, we looked at whether patients with EBV in their tumors differed from those without EBV with regard to various characteristics. This work is underway, and additional funding recently has been received to continue it into 2008.
NCCC Principal Investigator: Sally L. Glaser, Ph.D.
Co-investigators: Margaret A. Gulley, M.D., University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Teri Longacre, M.D., Stanford University, Richard F. Ambinder, M.D., Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
Funding: California Breast Cancer Research Program, 2003-2005, National Cancer Institute Small Grant Award, 2003-2005, Safeway Foundation 2007-2008
Publications:
Thorne L, Glaser SL, Gulley ML. Real-Time PCR measures Epstein-Barr virus DNA in archival breast adenocarcinomas. Diagn Molec Pathol 2005; 14:29-33.
Ryan JL, Fan H, Glaser SL, Schichman SA, Raab-Traub N, Gulley ML. Epstein-Barr virus quantitation by real-time PCR: A novel approach to screen for the virus in paraffin-embedded tissues. J Molec Diagn 2004; 6(4):378-85.
Glaser SL, Hsu JL, Gulley ML. Epstein-Barr virus and breast cancer: State of the evidence for viral carcinogenesis. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prevention 2004; 13(5):688-697.
Glaser SL. Correspondence re: Yasui et al., Breast Cancer Risk and "Delayed" Primary Epstein-Barr Virus Infection. 10: 9-16, 2001. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prevention 2003 Jan;12(1):73.
Glaser SL, Ambinder RF, DiGiuseppe JA, Horn-Ross PL, Hsu JL. Absence of Epstein-Barr virus in breast cancers from an epidemiologically diverse case series. Int J Cancer 1998; 75:555-558.
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