Frequencies of HLA-DP alleles in the four major types of leukaemia.

The frequencies of HLA-DP alleles in 50 acute lymphocytic, 43 acute non-lymphocytic, 50 chronic myelogenous and 51 chronic lymphocytic leukaemia patients were compared with 254 controls using primed lymphocyte typing. In CLL and ANLL there were significantly decreased frequencies of DPw1. Decreased DPw1 and DPw3 was observed in ALL, but after correction for the number of comparisons made this was no longer significant. However, in ALL, even after correction, there were significantly increased frequencies of DPw2 and DPw5, whereas in ANLL and CLL the only significant increases were of DP-blank, and in CML there were no positive or negative associations at all. These results suggest an influence of DP alleles in disease susceptibility and resistance in three of the four major types of leukaemia.