Paper Title
Breast Cancer: Expression Profile of P53 and RB in Association with HPV Infection and their Implication as Potential Prognostic Marker

Abstract
Breast cancer (BC) is the most prevalent cancer type among woman. Its development and progression are associated with alterations in cell cycle checkpoint proteins along with high risk Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) infection. In present study we have analysed the expression pattern of E6 and E7 HPV oncoproteins in HPV positive samples along with P53 and RB cell cycle protein expression in BC tumor tissue samples from Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute,Kolkata,India and found that among these HPV positive samples 79% and 31% samples were HPV 16 and HPV 18 +ve respectively. Immunohistochemical analysis of E6 and E7 oncoproteins in BC samples showed 56% and 63% high/medium expression. Moreover, a significant negative association was noted between the HPV protein (E6 and E7)and cell cycle protein (P53 and RB) expression. Statistical analysis showed P53 and E7 had higher hazard ration among the BC patients but p53 protein expression was significantly associated with worst patient prognosis. Therefore, poor patient survival was associated with higher p53 expression. While higher RB expression was associated with better patient survival irrespective of their HPV infection status. In conclusion, this study has clinical importance as it has attempted to characterise the P53 protein expression profile associated to breast cancer development and can predict the clinical outcome of the patients with HPV infection.