Clinical significance of correlation between expression of HPV and P16 protein in breast cancer patients

OBJECTIVE To investigate the correlation between expression of HPV and P16protein in the patients with breast cancer so as to provide basis for the prevention and treatment of breast cancer.METHODS A total of 74patients with breast cancer and 70patients with breast fibroadenoma were chosen in the period from Mar 2009 to Mar 2012,then the breast cancer tissue,tissue adjacent breast cancer,fibroadenoma tissue,and normal tissue adjacent fibroadenoma were collected,and the positive rate of HPV infection in different tissues,the correlation of HPV infection with axillary lymph node metastasis,the positive rate of P16protein immuno-histochemistry in different tissues,and the correlation between expression of HPV and P16protein in breast cancer were compared.RESULTS The positive rate of HPV infection(83.8%)in breast cancer tissue was significantly higher than that in the tissue adjacent breast cancer(54.1%),the fibroadenoma tissue(18.6%)or the normal tissue adjacent fibroadenoma(10.0%),the difference was statistically significant(P0.05).The positive rate of HPV infection was positively correlated with the axillary lymph node metastasis(P0.05).The positive rate of P16protein immunohistochemistry in the breast cancer tissue(29.7%)was significantly lower than that of the tissue adjacent breast cancer(51.4%),the fibroadenoma tissue(68.6%)or the normal tissue adjacent fibroadenoma(81.4%),the difference was statistically significant(P0.05),however,there was a negative correlation between the expression of HPV and P16protein in the breast cancer patients(P0.05).CONCLUSION The positive rate of HPV infection in the breast cancer tissues is high,which is negatively correlated with the expression of P16 protein.It can be defined as a significant indicator for evaluating the prognosis of breast cancer.