Association of malignant glioma with the human leukocyte antigen, HLA-A24(9)

Many immune responses are controlled by genes of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). In humans these include the loci encoding the HLA-A, -B, -C, -DR, -DQ, and -DP antigens, and many diseases have been linked with these. However, little information is available about any connection between malignant tumors and HLA. In this study the possible association of HLA-A, -B, -C and -DR specificities with susceptibilities to malignant glioma was investigated in 42 patients with malignant glioma and 42 controls with non-glial intracranial tumors using the Terasaki-NIH standard method. The data were also compared with those of the 11th International HLA Workshop. The result showed that a high frequency of HLA-24(9) was observed in patients with intracranial malignant gliomas, which was not common in other, non-glial patient groups. In animals the MHC acts in defense against virally induced tumors, but until now there has been no evidence that they do so in human gliomas. Our discovery of its association with an HLA antigen is important for understanding the immunogenetic basis of susceptibility to glioma.