Human Leukocyte Antigen Class II Alleles and Risk of Cervical Cancer in China

Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II alleles have been associated with an increased or decreased risk of developing cervical cancer through infection with oncogenic forms of human papillomavirus (HPV). To verify whether HLA class II allelic polymorphism is related to cervical cancer in China, 133 cervical cancers and 98 healthy controls were analyzed for HLA typing. Our results showed that DPB1*1301 allele frequency was significantly higher in the cervical cancers compared with healthy controls (OR, 3.793; p = 0.002; Pc = 0.04). A significant relationship was found between DRB1*150101–DQB1*0602 haplotype (OR, 0.180; p < 0.0001; Pc < 0.003), DRB1*070101–DQB1*0201 haplotype (OR, 0.110; p = 0.001; Pc = 0.03), and decreased risk for cervical cancer. Similar tendencies were observed for DRB1*150101–DQB1*0602 haplotype with HPV16 positive cervical cancers (OR, 0.182; p = 0.001; Pc = 0.021), and for DRB1*070101–DQB1*0201 haplotype (OR, 0.144; p =0.003; Pc = 0.063). These results indicate that HLA–DPB1*1301 may confer susceptibility to cervical cancer, and the haplotypes DRB1*150101–DQB1*0602 and DRB1*070101–DQB1*0201 may contribute to the resistance to the development of cervical cancer among Chinese women. The study suggests that specific HLA class II alleles and haplotypes may influence the immune response to specific HPV-encoded epitopes and affect the risk of cervical cancer in a Chinese population from an area with a high incidence of this neoplasia.