Risk of invasive cervical cancer associated with polymorphic HLA DR/DQ haplotypes

The genes encoding human leukocyte antigens (HLA) have shown to be associated with cervical neoplasia. To obtain reliable data on HLA associations with cervical tumors, the study should be performed within a strictly defined cohort. To investigate the population attributable risk of cervical cancer associated with the HLA class II haplotypes DR15 and DQ6 (DQA1*0102 and DQB1*0602), we performed a nested case‐control study of 85 women who developed invasive cervical cancer and 120 healthy women from a population‐based cohort of Swedish women. The relative risks of cervical cancer among DR15 and DQ6‐positive women were 3.73 [confidence interval (CI): 1.8–7.4] and 4.33 (CI: 2.1–8.5), corresponding to population attributable proportions of 27.9% and 30.8%, respectively. A susceptibility locus in the HLA class II region is involved in a substantial fraction of the etiology of cervical cancer. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.