HLA and Kaposi's sarcoma in Sardinia

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Abstract
Twelve Sardinian patients affected by histologically defined classic Kaposi''s sarcoma (KS) were HLA-A, B, C and DR typed. Compared to 220 age and ethnically matched healthy controls, KS patients showed a significant increase in HLA-DR5 (66.6 vs. 23.1%, P < 0.001) and a considerable decrease in HLA-DR3 (8.3 vs. 53.6%, P = 0.0055). No definite association was observed for other HLA antigens. These results confirm the existence of an HLA associated genetic control of KS susceptibility and support the hypothesis that HLA-DR5 plays the role of a predisposition marker while HLA-DR3 bears a genetic resistance to the disease.