Genetic susceptibility to breast cancer: HLA DQB*03032 and HLA DRB1*11 may represent protective alleles
- Subhra Chaudhuri,
- Annaiah Cariappa,
- Mei Tang,
- Daphne Bell,
- Daniel A. Haber,
- Kurt J. Isselbacher,
- Dianne Finkelstein,
- David Forcione, and
- Shiv Pillai†
- Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center and Harvard Medical School, Building 149, 13th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129
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Contributed by Kurt J. Isselbacher
Abstract
Tumors are believed to emerge only when immune surveillance fails. We wished to ascertain whether the failure to inherit putative protective alleles of HLA class II genes is linked to the development of breast cancer. We molecularly typed HLA DPB1, DQB1, DRB1, and DRB3 alleles in 176 Caucasian women diagnosed with early-onset breast cancer and in 215 ethnically matched controls. HLA DQB*03032 was identified in 7% of controls but in no patients with early-onset breast cancer (P = 0.0001). HLA DRB1*11 alleles were also significantly overrepresented (P < 0.0001) in controls (16.3%) as compared with patients with early-onset breast cancer (3.5%). HLA DQB*03032 and HLA DRB1*11 alleles may have a protective role in human breast cancer.
Footnotes
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↵ † To whom reprint requests should be addressed at: MGH Cancer Center, Building 149, 13th Street, Charlestown, MA 02129. E-mail: pillai{at}helix.mgh.harvard.edu.
- Abbreviation:
- SSO,
- sequence-specific oligonucleotide
- Copyright © 2000, The National Academy of Sciences
