title: Linkage of a nasopharyngeal carcinoma susceptibility locus to the HLA region.
abstract: The frequency of nasopharyngeal carcinoma is nearly 100-fold higher in southern Chinese than in most European populations. Earlier studies have suggested that an increased risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma is associated with specific haplotypes in the HLA region: relative risks slightly over twofold were found for haplotypes A2, Bw46 and the antigen B17. We now report a linkage study based on affected sib pairs which suggests that a gene closely linked to the HLA locus confers a greatly increased risk of nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The maximum likelihood estimate is of a relative risk of approximately 21. The relationship between this suspected disease susceptibility gene (or genes) and known viral and environmental aetiological factors remains to be elucidated.
authors.affiliation: People's Regional Hospital, Nanning, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: S J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: N E
authors.initials: NE
authors.lastname: Day
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Degos
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Lepage
authors.forename: P C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: S H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Simons
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: McKnight
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Easton
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zeng
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D015789:HLA-A2 Antigen / Q000235:genetics; D015235:HLA-B Antigens / Q000235:genetics; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000235:genetics; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008126:Lod Score; D009303:Nasopharyngeal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens; D015789:HLA-A2 Antigen; D015235:HLA-B Antigens; C037449:HLA-B17 antigen; C080311:HLA-B46 antigen; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens