HLA antigen in Chinese patients with hepatocellular carcinomas

One hundred and fourteen Chinese patients with hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) were studied for alpha-fetoprotein (AFP), hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg), anti-HBsAg, and HLA markers. Younger patients with HCC (less than 60 yr old) were more significantly associated with elevated serum AFP (P less than 0.0001) and serum HBsAg (P less than 0.0001) than were older (greater than or equal to 60 yr old) patients. A strong correlation existed between serum AFP and HBsAg among the patients (P less than 0.0001). Of 27 AFP-negative patients, 15 (55.6%) had HLA-B15 compared to 53 of 238 (22.3%) healthy controls (corrected P less than 0.003, relative risk = 4.4). The frequency of HLA-B15 was even higher in the AFP-negative plus HBsAg-negative subgroup (61%). AFP-negative patients also had a significant lack of blood group A.