Malignant bone and soft-tissue tumor and HLA

Certain HLA antigens have been found to possess positive associations with a number of disease. Weak associations have been recognized for a number of malignancies. In our present study, we contemplated unraveling the relationship between HLA antigens and malignant bone and soft-tissue tumor. A homogeneous group of thirty Japanese patients underwent tissue-typing for the expression of HLA-A, B, DR and DQ antigens. Significant increases were noted in the frequencies of HLA-A 26, B 39 and DR blank antigens. When these subjects were subdivided into two groups according to their age of onset, the frequencies of HLA-A 26 and B 39 were noticed to be increased among the juvenile group only. Frequency of HLA-DR blank was increased in both groups. The frequency of HLA-B 12 was observed to be increased among those and especially in the juvenile group who developed pulmonary metastases within one year after initiation of treatment. Half of the ten poor prognosis cases carried this antigen. The etiological and prognostic significance of these findings remain to be determined.