The relation of susceptibility to and biologic behavior of thyroid epithelial cell cancer to HLA-DR1.

Fifty-two patients with thyroid epithelial cell cancer were studied for evidence of association with human leukocyte antigens (HLA). Twenty-eight patients (53.8%) and 19.4% of 160 controls were HLA-DR1-positive, conferring a relative risk of 4.85 (chi 2 = 21.3, P less than 0.0001). HLA-DR1 was increased in all histologic types of thyroid cancer. Interestingly 10 of 12 patients with metastatic disease were DR1-positive compared to 18 of 41 patients without metastases (relative risk = 6.1, chi 2 = 4.7, P less than 0.05). This study suggests that major histocompatibility complex-linked gene(s) determine susceptibility to and the biologic behavior of thyroid cancer.