Human leukocyte antigens related to Epstein-Barr virus-associated gastric carcinoma in Japanese patients

To assess the association between specific types of human leukocyte antigen and the risk of Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated gastric carcinoma, ser ological typing for major histocompatibility complex class I and class LI a ntigens was performed for 110 EBV-positive and 155 EBV-negative gastric car cinoma cases. In class I analysis, the frequency of B59 in the EBV-positive cases was higher than for the EBV-negative cases (odds ratio (OR) 3.06; 95 % confidence interval (CI) 1.02-9.23). For class II antigens, DQ3 and DR9 f requencies in the EBV-positive cases were higher (OR 1.94; 95% CI 1.16-3.24 and OR 1.93; 95% CI 1.11-3.37, respectively), whereas DR11 frequency was l ower than found in the EBV-negative cases (OR 0.10; 95% CI 0.01-0.79). Afte r adjusting for multiple comparisons, only DR11 frequency remained signific antly lower in the EBV-positive cases (P = 0.04), and the association of DQ 3 was marginally significant (P = 0.05). These results suggest that the pre sence of DR11-restricted cytotoxic T cells (CTLs) related to EBV-associated gastric carcinoma, or a deficiency of DR11 and a high frequency of DQ3 may be genetic markers for a population at greater risk of EBV-associated gast ric carcinoma. However, further extensive studies to more cases and DNA typ ing are needed because our findings in this study are exploratory. (C) 2001 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.