The Relationship Between HLA Class II Polymorphisms and Somatic Deletions in Testicular B Cell Lymphomas of Dutch Patients

Several risk factors including immune deficiencies, infections, and autoimmune diseases have been established for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). For diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common type of lymphoma, no risk factors have been described, which may be due to the intrinsic heterogeneity of this disorder. Previously we reported that, in contrast to nodal DLBCLs, the majority of testicular DLBCLs manifested complete loss of HLA-DR and -DQ expression associated with homozygous deletions of the corresponding genes. To determine the correlation between HLA class II polymorphisms and these lymphomas, we applied DNA typing for HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DQB1 on 50 Dutch patients with testicular and 48 with nodal DLBCL and compared the frequencies with a cohort of healthy Dutch controls. Both the patients with nodal and those with testicular DLBCL manifested significantly higher frequencies of HLA-DRB1*15 than the controls ( p < 0.018, odds ratio 2.09 and p < 0.013, odds ratio 2.12, respectively). Moreover, a positive association was seen with HLA-DRB1*12 ( p = 0.043, odds ratio 4.17) in the patients with testicular DLBCL, and a negative association was seen with HLA-DRB1*07 ( p = 0.022, odds ratio 0.13) in the patients with nodal DLBCL. Homozygous deletions of the HLA-DR/DQ region, evaluated by interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization were seen in 20 of 48 testicular tumors. No preferential loss or retention of a particular HLA-DR or -DQ allele was seen because all alleles were at least once retained or involved in a homozygous deletion.