HLA-A, HLA-B, HLA-DRB1 Polymorphisms and Risk of Cervical Squamous Epithelial Cell Carcinoma: A Population Study in China

Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women. HLA class I and II alleles polymorphismshave been shown to be associated with cervical cancer risk, but results have varied among different populations.In this study, the HLA-A, -B, and –DRB1 alleles among 100 southern Chinese women with cervical squamouscell carcinoma (SCC) were compared to 254 controls. Our results showed that B*51:01:02 allele frequencywas significantly higher in patients with SCC than in healthy controls (P = 3.17x 10-5, Pc = 0.005, OR = 26.7).Statistical analysis also revealed a significantly decreased frequency of B*51:01:01 (P = 7.01x 10-4, Pc = 0.03, OR= 0.12) in patients with SCC when compared with healthy controls. These results indicate that HLA-B*51:01:02may confer susceptibility to SCC and HLA-B*51:01:01 may contribute to resistance to the development of SCCin Chinese women. None of the HLA-A-B or HLA-A-B-DRB1 haplotypes were significantly different in casesand controls after multiple testing corrections, indicating the individual allele associations to be independent ofthe identified haplotypes. These results support the hypothesis that some HLA-B alleles could be involved withsusceptibility for developing SCC.