Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) Class II Allele Frequencies in Female Patients with Breast Cancer: A Case Control Study

Background: the study aimed to examine the association between human leukocyte antigen (hla) class ii allele frequencies and breast cancer in iranian women. methods: a total of 100 patients with pathologically proven breast cancer who referred to cancer institute were randomly selected and compared with a group of age matched healthy blood donors (n = 80). hla class ii alleles were determined by amplification of dna followed by hla-typing using sequence-specific primer (ssp) for each allele. results: the frequency of hla-dqa1*0301 (p=0.001, or=3.4) and hla- drb1*1303 (p=0.02, or=2.3) among breast cancer patients was significantly higher than those in control group. hla-dqa1*0505 (p=0.003, or=0.4), hla-drb1*1301 (p=0.002, or=0.12) and hla- dqa1*0101 (p=0.01, or=0.21) alleles showed negative association with breast cancer. conclusion: the findings suggest that hla-dqa1*0301 allele is mainly associated with increased risk of breast cancer in iranian female patients. hla-dqa1*0505 and hla-drb1*1301 alleles are suggested as protective genetic factors against breast cancer. the findings confirm that specific alleles of hla class ii influence breast cancer risk.