Prevalence of Human Herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) in untreated patients with early stage Mycosis Fungoides (A retrospective study)

Background : Human herpesvirus 8 (HHV-8), also known as Kaposi's Sarcoma - associated herpesvirus (KSHV) was first identified and detected in 1994 in patients with Kaposi's Sarcoma. Recently, a strong association has been shown between HHV-8 and large-plaque parapsoriasis and mycosis fungoides(MF). This association has been attributed to either recent infection or reactivation of HHV-8 in patients who had extensive and/or who had an advanced stage of the diseases. This intriguing observation prompted us to perform a retrospective study in which tested previous histopathology specimens of untreated patients with early stage MF for presence of (HHV-8) by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technology Objective: To investigate the presence of Human Herpesvirus-8 (HHV-8) in lesional skin of patients with early MF. Method: Retrospective study of the presence of HHV-8 in patients with early stages (1a, 1b) MF. Fifty Paraffin-embedded lesional skin specimens were selected, 27 specimens were from patients with MF stage la and lb, 21 specimens from patients with psoriasis as negative control and 2 specimens from patients with Kaposi's sarcoma as positive control. The presence of HHV-8 was analyzed from paraffin-embedded lesional tissue samples using a real time PCR technology. Results: A low association of HHV-8 infection in early stages of MF was observed. Only two samples were tested positive, while none tested positive in psoriatic samples. Conclusions: It may be concluded that HHV-8 is not significantly associated with early stages MF.