Lack of evidence for an association of Epstein–Barr virus infection with breast carcinoma – authors' response
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* Corresponding author: Gerald Niedobitek gerald.niedobitek@patho.imed.uni-erlangen.de
1 Professor of Pathology, Institut für Pathologie, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität, Erlangen, Germany
2 Senior Lecturer in Pathology, Institute for Cancer Studies, University of Birmingham, UK
3 Professor of Cancer Biology, Institute for Cancer Studies, University of Birmingham, UK
Breast Cancer Res 2003, 5:E7 doi:10.1186/bcr604
Published: 30 April 2003First paragraph (this article has no abstract)
In her letter, recently published in Breast Cancer Research, María Victoria Preciado points out that some published evidence suggests a possible association of breast cancer with Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) [1]. EBV DNA has been detected by PCR in up to 50% of cases (for a review see [2]), and expression of the EBV-encoded nuclear antigen EBNA1 has been demonstrated in approximately 40% of cases by immunohistochemistry using the mAb designated 2B4 [3]. In combination, these findings seem to implicate EBV in the pathogenesis of breast carcinoma. Interestingly, however, most investigators agree that the EBV-encoded RNAs (EBERs), a hallmark of latent EBV infection, are not detectable in breast carcinoma tumour cells [2].