Association between HLA-A/-B antigens and-DRB1 alleles and nasopharyngeal carcinoma in Tunisia

Using serologic and molecular methods, 45 nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) pa tients were typed for HLA class I and class II and were compared to 100 unr elated normal Tunisians. Our results showed that the antigen frequency of H LA-B13 and allelic frequencies of DRB1*03, DRB1*15 were significantly highe r in the NPC patients than in the control group (15.5 vs. 4; 26.4 vs. 11.5, and 14.4 vs. 6.5%, respectively) probably indicating a positive associatio n with NPC. Moreover, we observed that HLA-A23 was absent in our NPC sample and was present in 18% of normal controls, and HLA-DRB1*11 was less freque nt among the patients compared to the controls (5.5 vs. 14%) suggesting a p rotective effect of this association with NPC. Copyright (C) 2001 S.Karger AG, Basel.