An increased risk of cervical intra‐epithelial neoplasia grade II‐III among human papillomavirus positive patients with the HLA‐DQA10102‐DQB10602 haplotype: A population‐based case–control study of Norwegian women

Several recent studies have reported different associations between HLA specificities and human papillomavirus (HPV)‐associated disease of the cervix. We report the distribution of DQA1 and DQB1 genes and HPV infection in a population‐based case–control study including 92 patients with histologically verified cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade II‐III (CIN II‐III) (thus including moderate and severe dysplasia and carcinoma in situ) and 225 control subjects. We found an overrepresentation of the DQA1*0102‐DQB1*0602 haplotype among HPV‐positive cases compared with controls. The association was even stronger when comparing HPV‐16–positive cases with HPV‐16–positive controls. In addition, among HPV‐16–positive individuals, we observed a decreased frequency of DQA1*0102‐DQB1*0604 in cases compared with controls. We were not able to detect any association between CIN II‐III and DQB1*03. Compared with previous findings in cervical cancer, our data indicate that carrying the DQA1*0102‐DQB1*0602 haplotype gives an increased risk of developing CIN when infected with HPV‐16, without influencing progression to cancer. Int. J. Cancer 76:19–24, 1998.© 1998 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.