title: HLA antigen frequencies in malignant melanoma patients. A second study.
abstract: Two groups of malignant melanoma (MM) patients were considered: the group of 140 patients previously published and a new one of 58, both typed for HLA-A, -B and -C antigens at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori of Milan. The control group consisted of healthy blood donors not related to the patients. Only the HLA-Bw35 antigen frequency was significantly decreased in both groups of patients. To investigate the HLA-A and -B blanks, 62 MM patients and 90 healthy controls, who showed non-homozygotic blanks when they were firstly HLA typed, volunteered to repeat the HLA typing three or more times in a 2-year period. A significant increase in both HLA-A and -B blanks in the patients as compared to controls was noticed (p = 3 X 10(-4) and 3 X 10(-5), respectively). In the future, attempts should be made to correlate the HLA antigen and blank frequencies with the evolution of the disease and, also, to verify the hypothesis that the HLA-Bw35 antigen may be an associated resistance factor against the tumor.
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D006680:HLA Antigens / Q000032:analysis* / Q000276:immunology; D015234:HLA-A Antigens; D015235:HLA-B Antigens; D015797:HLA-B35 Antigen; D006650:Histocompatibility Testing; D006801:Humans; D008214:Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology*; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D006680:HLA Antigens; D015234:HLA-A Antigens; D015235:HLA-B Antigens; D015797:HLA-B35 Antigen