Does hepatitis C virus play a role in breast and colon cancer?

Background: HCV is an important cause of hepatocellular carcinoma worldwide. The highest incidence of HCV is in Egypt, where some epithelial cancer incidence has increased. May be there is a link between HCV infection and carcinogenesis of non-hepatic epithelial tumors.Objectives: In this study, we test the presence of HCV antigen in non-hepatic epithelial tumors as breast and colon cancers.Patients and methods: Fifty-five tumors; 23 colon and 32 breast cancers were included in this study. All patients are HCV seropositive. All tumors were examined histopathologically by routine H&E stain and immunohistochemically using HCV core antibody and HCV Core + NS3 + NS4 antibodies (Cocktail of HCV proteins) to evaluate the diagnosis, grading, and to assess the presence or absence of HCV antigen. Result: Fifty-two tumors showed expression of HCV core protein including; 22 and 30 of colon and breast cancers respectively. The three negative tumors included one colon case cancer and two breast cancer cases. All investigated tumors showed expression of Cocktail of HCV proteins with different intensities. Expression of both HCV proteins were granular pattern. The expression was either nuclear, cytoplasmic or nucleocytoplasmic.Conclusion: Most breast and colon tumors expressed HCV antigens, suggesting that HCV infection may play a role in the carcinogenesis of these tumors.