Well differentiated thyroid carcinoma is associated with human lymphocyte antigen D-related 11 in Eastern Hungarians: a case of changing circumstances.
BACKGROUND
Using serologic human lymphocyte antigen (HLA) typing, the authors previously described a strong association between well differentiated thyroid carcinoma and HLA D-related 1 (HLA-DR1) in a population of unselected patients from Eastern Hungary.


METHODS
In the current study, the authors used polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformational polymorphism to determine the HLA-DR type in 75 patients with well differentiated thyroid carcinoma from the same area as their previous population, and they compared the current results with the results from a group of 170 healthy controls.


RESULTS
A significant increase in HLA-DR11, rather than HLA-DR1, was observed in patients with well differentiated thyroid carcinoma among a population of patients from the same area that was studied previously. After excluding technical reasons to account for differences in disease association, they postulated that interim environmental factors, possibly radiation fall-out, may have resulted in differences in genetic susceptibility to thyroid carcinoma. Consideration of the potential antigenic peptides that may be restricted by the two HLA-DR alleles may have allowed for the binding of similar peptides to initiate an immune response, likely leading to progressive immunomodulation of the tumor. Discriminat function analysis indicated a significant relation between tumor size and metastases and less lymphocytic infiltration of the tumor, but this was not related to HLA-DR phenotypes.


CONCLUSIONS
The authors found that the study of major histocompatability complex alleles holds promise for understanding the events that initiate and maintain tumor immunomodulation.
Juhasz
Ferenz
F
First Department of Surgey, Medical and Health Science Center, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary.
Kozma
Laszlo
L
Stenszky
Valeria
V
Gyory
Ferenc
F
Luckas
Geza
G
Farid
Nadir R
NR
D018263:Adenocarcinoma, Follicular / Q000235:genetics*; D000328:Adult; D002291:Carcinoma, Papillary / Q000235:genetics*; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D005260:Female; D005802:Genes, MHC Class II; D006684:HLA-DR Antigens / Q000235:genetics*; D059810:HLA-DR Serological Subtypes; D015798:HLA-DR1 Antigen / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D006814:Hungary; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D016246:Lymphocytes, Tumor-Infiltrating / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D011379:Prognosis; D013964:Thyroid Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics*
D006684:HLA-DR Antigens; D059810:HLA-DR Serological Subtypes; D015798:HLA-DR1 Antigen; C080766:HLA-DR11 antigen