[Expression of the major histocompability complex HLA-A2 gene in ovarian cancer]

It has been recently shown that the HLA-A2 gene may be a negative predictor of ovarian cancer in Swedish patients with advanced tumor grades and stages (III and IV). We performed HLA-A2 typing in 69 ovarian cancer patients admitted to some St. Petersburg hospitals. HLA-A2 expression was determined by the PCR/sequence-specific oligonucleotide hybridization test (PCR/SSOP), by extracting DNA from the paraffin-embedded tissue specimens. The purified tissue was disrupted at 55(C in 10% SDS, proteinase K buffer twice. The amount and purity of DNA were measured by the Nano-Drop technology. HLA-A2 frequency from 2 832 healthy St. Petersburg bone marrow donors was used as a control. HLA-A2 was detected in 32.2% of the patients by PCR versus 51% in the healthy St. Petersburg population. Five year survival in our patient group was higher than that in ovarian cancer patients in St. Petersburg, which was 35.7% in general. The difference was statistically insignificant in 5-year survival between our ovarian cancer patients with stages III and IV according to the presence or absence of the HLA-A2 gene. In the cohort of the examinees, HLA-A2 expression does not correlate with prognosis. The selection of these patients for referral to our clinic is a possible explanation of the discrepancy of the rate of clinical stage and HLA-A2 phenotypes.