Are HLA-E*0103 alleles predictive markers for nasopharyngeal cancer risk?

Abstract

Background: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a particular entity of head neck cancer, tightly related to Epstein-Barr virus infection and thus to HLA genes. In this study, we aimed to analyze HLA-E polymorphism in NPC advent and prognosis.130 unrelated patients with CNP and 180 unrelated and healthy controls were included in our study. HLA-E genotyping was performed by PCR/RFLP method; SPSS (13.0) was used for statistical analysis, and survival curbs were established with the "Kaplan-Meier" method (Log Rank < 0.05). Results: We found a significant difference within HLA-E*103 variants between patients and controls: E*1031 and E*1032 were associated with CNP (OR = 1.613, p = 0.013 and OR = 1.0809, p = 0.055), and E*1033 with controls (OR = 0.254, p < 10-4). Conclusion: Our study reveals that HLA-E polymorphism is associated with nasopharyngeal cancer. HLA-E expression studies could be used to understand the implication of E*103 variants.