RESEARCH Epstein-Barr Virus and Breast Cancer: Lack of Evidence for an Association in Iranian Women Maryam Kadivar & Ahmad Monabati & Azadeh Joulaee & Niloufar Hosseini Received: 15 September 2010 / Accepted: 21 October 2010 / Published online: 6 January 2011 # Arányi Lajos Foundation 2011 Abstract Controversies regarding the role of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) in breast cancer and lack of published literature in this regard in Iran, prompted us to assess EBV presence in 100 breast carcinoma and 42 control biopsies obtained from Iranian women. Breast carcinoma cases were comprised of 81 invasive ductal carcinoma NOS, 9 invasive lobular carcinoma, 1 apocrine carcinoma, 2 cribriform carcinoma, 2 papillary carcinoma and 5 mucinous carcinoma. Control biopsies consisted of 13 fibroadenoma, 9 benign epithelial proliferation (adenosis and sclerosing adenosis), 9 usual ductal hyperplasia, 4 atypical ductal hyperplasia, 4 non-proliferative fibrocystic changes and 3 normal breast tissue. To identify EBV- infected cells we applied immunohistochemical analysis, using monoclonal antibody against Epstein-Barr virus- encoded nuclear antigen 2 (EBNA-2) and latent membrane protein 1 (LMP-1). Further, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to amplify EBV DNA, with primers that cover the EBV encoded RNA (EBER) and BamHIW regions. EBNA-2 and LMP-1 immunohistochemistry were negative in all breast cancer and control specimens. Using PCR, none of the 100 breast cancer samples or the 42 control specimens showed detectable EBV DNA. These results indicate that EBV may not play a significant role in the etiology of breast cancer in Iranian women. Keywords Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) . Breast carcinoma . Iran . Immunohistochemistry (IHC) . Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) Abbreviations BZLF1 Immediate-early transcriptional activator BamHIW regions Internal repetitive region in Epstein-Barr virus genome CS1-4 Monoclonal antibody for LMP1 EBER EBV encoded RNA EBNA-2 Epstein-Barr virus encoded Nuclear Antigen 2 EBV Epstein-Barr virus EDTA Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid IHC Immunohistochemistry LMP-1 Latent Membrane Protein 1 NPC nasopharyngeal carcinoma PE2 Monoclonal antibody for EBNA2 PCR Polymerase chain reaction Introduction Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women worldwide. Although it is an epidemiologically significant global health problem with approximately 1,000,000 new cases diagnosed annually, identified risk factors are present in only about half of the cases [1, 2]. M. Kadivar (*) Department of Pathology, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Hazrat Rasool-e-Akram Hospital, Niayesh St, Sattarkhan Ave., P.O. Box: 14455/364, Tehran, Iran e-mail: dmkadivar@gmail.com A. Monabati Department of Pathology, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences, Shiraz, Iran A. Joulaee Department of Breast & General surgery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran N. Hosseini Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran Pathol. Oncol. Res. (2011) 17:489–492 DOI 10.1007/s12253-010-9325-z