Background: Chlamydia trachomatis (C. trachomatis) and Mycoplasma genitalium (M. genitalium) are considered factors in cervical and ovarian cancer and are associated with flaky cell carcinoma of the cervix. The role of steady infection, leading to chronic inflammation, in the of ovarian cancer has received very little consideration, although a background of pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) is in a case-control study associate to higher risk for ovarian cancer. C. trachomatis, the most common and important cause of PID in the developed world is the genital and cervical infectious agent. The aim of this study was prevalence of C. trachomatis and M. genitalium in patients with ovarian cancer who referred to Imam Hossein Hospital of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Materials and Methods: In this descriptive study that was conducted from January 2014 to April 2015, 124 samples were studied which obtained from patients with ovarian cancer who referred to medical centers of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences. After obtaining samples from ovarian cancer tissue by the pathologist, for extraction DNA, samples were transferred to the laboratory of university. To confirm the presence of C. trachomatis in samples of ovarian cancer, specific primers for the Major Outer Membrane Protein (MOMP) genes of C. trachomais, were designed and used Nested PCR method for detection of M. genitalium. Sequencing was performed on the PCR and Nested PCR product to confirm the presence of C. trachomatis and M. genitalium.
Results: Out of 124 samples of ovarian cancer, 62 (50%) samples were malignant cancer and 62 (50%) were benign cancer as control group. From 65 malignant samples 14 (22.5%) were Chlamydia trachomatis positive. None of the tissue samples of benign cancer of ovary were positive for C. trachomatis. Notably, none of the 124 ovarian samples were positive in the M. genitalium standard PCR assay.
Conclusion: The results suggest that the spread of C. trachomatis in the female with ovarian cancer may be common. This finding reflects a possible role of C. trachomatis in the carcinogenesis of ovarian tumors. C. trachomatis infection may play a relative role in the pathogenesis of ovarian carcinomas or it could facilitate its progression.