HPV33 DNA in premalignant and malignant breast lesions in Chinese and Japanese populations

The relationship between human papillomavirus (HPV) infection and breast ca ncel is controversial. In this study, paraffin-embedded tissue blocks prepa red from 72 patients with benign, premalignant or malignant mammary lesions were randomly collected from the Shanghai region of China and Tokushima in Japan. DNA specimens extracted from all tissues were amplified by the poly merase chain reaction (PCR) using HPV16, IS and 33 primers. Southern blot h ybridization showed 19 cases to be positive for HPV33 DNA: The positive rat e for HPV33 DNA in Chinese (41.7%) was significantly higher than in Japanes e (11.1%) (P < 0.01): The positive rate for. HPV33 DNA in invasive ductal c arcinoma (34.1%) was higher than in benign or borderline mammary lesions (5 %) (P < 0.02). There were no statistically significant difference among the relationship of the nuclear grade of breast cancels with HPV33 DNA-positiv ity. This is the first report of a positive correlation between HPV33 DNA a nd breast lesions in Chinese and Japanese populations. These results sugges t that the infection by HPV33, but notHPV 16 or HPV 18, may be involved in breast hyperplastic lesions, especially breast cancel, in humans.