A significant positive association between antigens HLA Awl9 andlor HLA B5 and a disease-free survival time of one year for patients with lung cancer has been reported but not confirmed. We have HLAtyped 20 white patients with non-oat-cell bronchogenic carcinoma who have survived at least a year from the time of diagnosis. Half these patients possessed these antigens (P < 0.08). This highly suggests that the presence of these antigens is associated with prolonged survival time. Now may be the time for performing large scale clinical trials using these antigens as stratification factors.
Cancer 46:38-40. 1980.
ELLON, ROGENTINE, A N D CHRETIEN have re-D ported a significant positive association between antigens HLA Awl9 and/or HLA BS and one year of disease-free survival in a prospectively studied group of 70 patients with squamous carcinoma or adenocarcinoma of the l ~n g . ~, ~ This observation is important as it defines a subpopulation of patients with bronchogenic carcinoma exhibiting a relatively high rate of survival. These investigators reported a 57% disease-free survival rate at two years following diagnosis in those patients with HLA Awl9 and/or HLA B5 while in patients without these HLA antigens, the survival rate was only 13%.' We feel that the clinical relevance of this work is that it permits, with advance knowledge of poor prognosis, the possible identification of a group of patients for whom aggressive chemotherapy would be appropriate. Before beginning prospective HLA typing of all lung cancer patients, we wished to confirm these critical observations. In this study, we report the results of HLA typing of 20 patients with bronchogenic carcinoma who have had prolonged survival times.
Materials and Methods
All patients with bronchogenic carcinoma (other than oat cell carcinoma) which had been diagnosed at least a year prior to the study were eligible for From the