DNA TYPING OF HLA CLASS-I (HLA-A) AND CLASS-II GENES (HLA-DR, HLA-DQ AND HLA-DP) IN JAPANESE PATIENTS WITH GASTRIC-CANCER

Gastric cancer is multifactorial disease and several reports have desc ribed genetic factors involved in pathogenesis of gastric cancer. Rece ntly it was reported that HLA class II gene DQBl0301 was strongly ass ociated with gastric cancer in Caucasian population (20). We performed DNA typing of HLA class I (HLA-A) and HLA class II genes (HLA-DR, DQ and DP) to elucidate the HLA alleles or HLA haplotypes associated with gastric cancer in Japanese population using polymerase chain reaction -sequence-specific oligonucleotide probe analysis in 88 unrelated pati ents with gastric cancer and 525 unrelated healthy controls. We observ ed slight difference in frequencies of some HLA alleles and haplotypes between gastric cancer patients and controls; however, after Bonferro ni correction, statistical significance was not confirmed. It is possi ble that environmental factors such as diet cover the contribution of genetic factors to the disease in Japanese population, which has a hig her frequency of gastric cancer than do Caucasian populations, most li kely due to more exposure to environmental risk factors.