HLA phenotype in patients with osteosarcoma

Nineteen patients with typical osteosarcoma were studied for evidence of association with human leukocyte antigen (HLA) phenotypes. HLA-A11 was detected in nine of 19 patients (47.4%) compared with 16.9% of 235 controls (chi 2 " 10.861, p less than 0.001), which yielded an odds ratio of 4.523. The positive rate of HLA-A11 was significantly increased in the patients. Interestingly, five of seven patients with poor prognosis had HLA-A11, compared with two of nine disease-free patients, 18 months after the initial treatment. These data suggest that major histocompatibility complex (MHC)-linked genes determines susceptibility to the occurrence of osteosarcoma and its prognosis.