title: No evidence of association of xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus with oral cancers: Experience from a tertiary care center in South India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Development of oral cancer, a widely prevalent cancer in India, is multifactorial with increased risk in those habituated to smoking, consuming alcohol and chewing paan and tobacco. This does not preclude other etiological factors in the causation of this cancer. Exploratory studies on several oncogenic viruses have found varied associations with oral cancers.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to explore the association of xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, (XMRV) a retrovirus recently implicated in oncogenesis in humans, with oral cancers.
  
  
  METHODS
  The presence of XMRV proviral deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) was evaluated by standard nucleic acid amplification from DNA extracted from representative bits of tumor tissues and adjacent normal tissues from surgically resected specimens sent post-operatively for routine histopathological testing.
  
  
  METHODS
  This prospective study comprised 109 patients with a provisional diagnosis of oral cancer who were operated at the Oral Oncology Department of Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, over a period of 10 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  XMRV was not found in any of the tumor tissues (squamous cell carcinomas - 98; verrucous carcinomas - 4) nor in any of the normal tissues. It is thus important that the absence of this oncogenic virus in all the cases makes the association of XMRV with oral cancers very unlikely.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There is a need to investigate potentially oncogenic viruses in other solid tumors and in larger sample sizes. Any such association could have implications in detecting, preventing and treating these cancers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shafiulla
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Trupti
authors.forename: N R
authors.initials: NR
authors.lastname: Namrata
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nadimul
authors.forename: K S
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Sabitha
authors.forename: R V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: R S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Jayshree
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000818:Animals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007194:India; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008875:Middle Aged; D009062:Mouth Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology*; D009858:Oncogenic Viruses / Q000472:pathogenicity; D011446:Prospective Studies; D062606:Tertiary Care Centers; D058008:Xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus / Q000472:pathogenicity*