The Prevalence of Epstein - Barr Virus in Normal, Premalignant, and Malignant Uterine Cervical Samples in Iran.

INTRODUCTION: It is suggested that Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may play an important role in cervical cancer development. Most studies found a higher rate of EBV in cervical cancer samples in comparison to premalignant and normal groups. In this regard, this study aimed to investigate the prevalence of EBV in cervical samples.

METHODS: In total, 364 samples from 179 healthy subjects, 124 women with premalignant lesions, and 61 patients with cervical cancer were investigated using nested PCR.

RESULTS: The mean age ± SE was 54.1 ± 13.4 in women with cervical cancer, 36.1 ± 9.4 among women with premalignant lesions and 36.6 ± 11.5 in healthy individuals. In total, 290 out of 364 samples were HPV positive and the following HPV genotypes were detected among them: HPV 16/18 was found in 43.1%, 23.9%, and 65.5%of normal, premalignant, and malignant samples, respectively, and other high-risk types were detected in 56.9% of normal, 76.1% of premalignant, and 34.5% of malignant samples. The prevalence of EBV was found to be 9.8%, 2.4%, and 2.8% in cervical cancer, premalignant lesions, and normal specimens, respectively, and the difference was statistically significant (P=0.028). The overall frequency of co-infection between EBV and HPV was shown to be 3.6%. The co-infection was more prevalent among HPV 16/18-infected samples than other high-risk HPVs (6.6% vs. 2.9%) although the difference was not reached a statistically significant difference (P=0.23).

CONCLUSION: Our findings indicated that EBV could play an important role as a cofactor in the progression of cervical cancer. However, future studies with larger sample sizes and the expression analysis of EBV transcripts or proteins are mandatory.