Association between high-risk HPV types, HLA DRB1* and DQB1* alleles and cervical cancer in British women

Cervical scrapes from 116 British women referred with cervical cancer were tested for the presence of high oncogenic risk human papillomavirus (HPV) genotypes (HPV(hr)). Ninety-four per cent of the scrapes had one or more of these virus types and 66% were HPV16-positive. HPV18 was more frequent in adenocarcinoma. No evidence was found for an increased cancer risk associated with the HPV16 E6 350G variant. The HLA DRB1* and DQB1* alleles in these women and in 155 women with normal cytology and negative for HPV(hr) DNA were compared. DQB1*0301 alone (2P = 0.02) and in combination with DRB1*0401 (2P = 0.02) was found to be associated with cervical cancer. This was more marked in cancers positive for HPV types other than HPV16. In contrast, DRB1*1501 alone and in combination with DQB1*0602 was not significantly elevated in cancers overall, but did show some excess in HPV16-positive cancers (2P = 0.05), associated with HPV16-positive cervical cancers. Taking all cancers together, a marginally significant protective effect was found for DQB1*0501 (2P = 0.03) but no protective effect could be seen for DRB1*1301.