Are some breast cancers sexually transmitted?

15 December 2006

UNSW researchers have drawn a link between breast cancer and the human papilloma virus (HPV), which is known to cause cervical cancer.

In a letter to the British Journal of Cancer, the researchers suggest HPVs may be transmitted to the breast during sexual activities and are more common in young women who have had multiple sexual partners.

In their earlier work with women with breast cancer, the researchers found that almost half of the group tested positive for the virus in their tumours. 50 women in Perth were part of the study. Of those, women with HPV-positive breast cancers were on average eight years younger than those who had the HPV-negative tumours.

“Our findings are not conclusive evidence that HPVs have a role in breast cancer,” said one of the authors, Emeritus Professor James Lawson, from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine. “Instead we are suggesting that HPVs are major candidate viruses for causation of breast cancer.”

Professor Lawson said further research is needed in the area to confirm the link, but if it is proven, the new cervical cancer vaccine might also help lower breast cancer rates.

The work is a collaboration between Professor Lawson from the Faculty of Medicine; and Dr Noel Whitaker, C-Y Kan and BJ Iacopetta, from the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences in the Faculty of Science.