Association of human herpesvirus type 6 DNA with human bladder cancer

Escudero, Alberto L.; Luque, Rafael J.; Quintero, Ana; Alvarez-Kindelan, Jose; Requena, Maria J.; Montironi, Rodolfo; Lopez-Beltran, Antonio

doi:10.1016/j.canlet.2004.12.014

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Volume 230, Issue 1 , Pages 20-24, 8 December 2005

Association of human herpesvirus type 6 DNA with human bladder cancer

Alberto L. Escudero
- Biomedical Research Unit, Cordoba University Medical School and Reina Sofia University Hospital, Avda. Menendez Pidal s/n, E-14004 Cordoba, Spain
Rafael J. Luque
- Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Cordoba University Medical School and Reina Sofia University Hospital, Avda. Menendez Pidal s/n, E-14004 Cordoba, Spain
Ana Quintero
- Biomedical Research Unit, Cordoba University Medical School and Reina Sofia University Hospital, Avda. Menendez Pidal s/n, E-14004 Cordoba, Spain
Jose Alvarez-Kindelan
- Urology Service, Cordoba University Medical School and Reina Sofia University Hospital, Avda. Menendez Pidal s/n, E-14004 Cordoba, Spain
Maria J. Requena
- Urology Service, Cordoba University Medical School and Reina Sofia University Hospital, Avda. Menendez Pidal s/n, E-14004 Cordoba, Spain
Rodolfo Montironi
- Department of Pathology, Marche Region University, Via Conca, 60020 Torrete di Ancona, Italy
Antonio Lopez-Beltran
- Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Cordoba University Medical School and Reina Sofia University Hospital, Avda. Menendez Pidal s/n, E-14004 Cordoba, Spain
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 957 218993; fax: +34 957 218229.

Received 4 November 2004; received in revised form 10 December 2004; accepted 13 December 2004.

Abstract

We examined the presence of human herpesvirus type 6 (HHV6) DNA in a series of 74 bladder carcinomas from a Mediterranean population to elucidate their possible role as cofactor in the development of bladder cancer with or without associated human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. HHV-6 type B DNA was present in 5 men (6.8%) out of the 74 tumors investigated; two of them had associated HPV-16 DNA in the same specimen. In one case that had associated urothelial carcinoma in situ, both HHV-6B and HPV-16 DNA were present. In conclusion, the low incidence of HHV-6B in bladder cancer and the ubiquitous nature of HHV-6 infection are more consistent with a bystander role rather than cofactor in the oncogenesis of bladder cancer.

Keywords: Bladder cancer, Carcinogenesis, Human herpesvirus type 6, Human papillomavirus