TY - JOUR T1 - Chromosome breaks in breast cancers occur near herpes tumor virus sequences JF - bioRxiv DO - 10.1101/2021.11.08.467751 SP - 2021.11.08.467751 AU - Bernard Friedenson Y1 - 2021/01/01 UR - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/11/10/2021.11.08.467751.abstract N2 - This work finds viral DNA associates with most chromosome breaks in breast cancer and provides a mechanism for why this is so. Nearly 2000 breast cancers were compared to known Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) variant cancers using publicly available data. Breast cancer breakpoints on all chromosomes cluster around the same positions as in nasopharyngeal cancers (NPCs), cancers 100% associated with EBV variants. Breakpoints also gather at the same differentially methylated regions. Breast cancer further has an EBV methylation signature shared with other cancers that inactivates complement. Another known EBV cancer (Burkitt’s lymphoma) has distinctive MYC gene breakpoints surrounded by EBV-like DNA. EBV-like DNA consistently surrounds breast cancer breakpoints, which are often near known EBV binding sites. EBV explains why a break in a chromosome does not simply reconnect in breakage-fusion-bridge models, but instead destabilizes the entire genome. This work does not prove EBV variants cause breast cancer, but establishes links to high-risk chromosome breaks and other changes.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest. ER -