Incidence of stomach cancer and HLA alleles

To investigate genetic factors in gastric cancer, we have typed 88 Japanese patients with gastric cancer for HLA-DRB1, DQA1, DQB1, DPA1, DPB1, and HLA-A genes by the HLA-DNA typing method using the PCR-SSOP technique. The frequency of DRB1*1401-DQA1*0104-DQB1*05031 was increased significantly (relative risk, 4.80; P<0.01) and the frequency of DRB1*0101-DQA1*0101-DQB1*0501 was decreased significantly (relative risk, 0.34; P<0.05) in the patients with all histological types of gastric cancer. The frequency of DRB1 *1501-DQA1 *01021-DQB1 *0602 was increased significantly in the patients with poorly differentiated type (relative risk 2.28; P<0.05). The frequency of DRB1*0101-DQA1*0101-DQB1*0501 was decreased more significantly in the patients with well and moderately differentiated type than poorly differentiated type. These results show that the HLA alleles which decide on susceptibility to gastric cancer differ with histological types.