Risk association between human leukocyte antigen - A allele and high-risk human papillomavirus infection for cervical neoplasia in Chinese women

To examine the association between human leukocyte antigen - A (HLA-A) allele polymorphism, human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, and risk for cervical neoplasia in Chinese women, 263 patients ( 155 with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia [CIN] II/III and 108 with invasive cervical cancer [ICC]) were compared with 572 controls. Overall, regardless of HPV status, a decreased risk for ICC was observed for patients with A*0207/ 0215N or A* 2402, and an increased risk was observed for patients with A* 1104. The protective association of A* 0207/0215N was reproduced in HPV-16-positive patients with ICC, but not in subgroups infected with other HPV types. The risk association between A* 1104 and both HPV-16 and HPV-18 was reproduced in the subgroups with CIN III/ICC. The protective association between A* 2402 and HPV-16, HPV- 18, HPV- 52, and HPV- 58 was consistently observed in all subgroups with CIN III/ICC, suggesting a linkage with a general antioncogenic genetic factor. The results of the present study indicate that HLA-A polymorphism is one of the host genetic factors that alter the risk for the development of cervical cancer in Chinese women.