Well differentiated thyroid carcinoma is associated with human lymphocyte antigen D-related 11 in Eastern Hungarians: a case of changing circumstances.

Background: Using serologic human lymphocyte antigen (HLA) typing, the authors previously described a strong association between well differentiated thyroid carcinoma and HLA D-related 1 (HLA-DR1) in a population of unselected patients from Eastern Hungary.

Methods: In the current study, the authors used polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformational polymorphism to determine the HLA-DR type in 75 patients with well differentiated thyroid carcinoma from the same area as their previous population, and they compared the current results with the results from a group of 170 healthy controls.

Results: A significant increase in HLA-DR11, rather than HLA-DR1, was observed in patients with well differentiated thyroid carcinoma among a population of patients from the same area that was studied previously.