Abstract
Breast cancer is the most frequent diagnosed cancer and leading cause of cancer death in females worldwide. Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) has been detected in subsets of breast cancers, implicating the virus as a probable cause of the cancer. The study was carried out to detect antibodies to EBV in women with or without breast lumps attending some hospitals in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study was a hospital-based and case-control study that combined the use of a structured questionnaire and analysis of blood samples obtained from 90 consenting women. The samples were screened for EBV-Viral Capsid Antigen (VCA) IgG and EBV-Early Antigen (EA) IgG using Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay. The EBV-VCA IgG was detected with similar rate of 82.2% (37/45) for women with and without breast lumps (P=0.636). The EBV-EA IgG was significantly detected in more than half (51.4%: 18/35) of the women with breast lump (P=0.005, OR= 2.467). There was no significant association between presence of the antibodies and all the socio-demographic and risk factors studied, except for breast feeding where EBV-EA IgG was detected significantly more (P= 0.014). Detection of EBV-VCA IgG indicate infection has occurred with EBV at some time recently or in the past among these women; while detection of the antibodies more in women with lumps could signify a relationship