Assessment of Human Leukocyte Antigen Differences between Smokers with Reinke’s Edema and Those with Laryngeal Cancer

The present study aimed to assess human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing differences between smokers with Reinke’s edema and those with laryngeal squamous cell carcinoma (SCC). 

The HLA class I, II alleles were examined in 76 unrelated Iranian patients using low-resolution polymerase chain reaction with the sequence-specific primer (PCR-SSP) method. 

The frequency of the HLA-A*36 allele and HLA-B*35 was significantly higher in patients with SCC. The frequency of HLA-DRB1*01 alleles in Reinke’s edema was significantly higher, as compared to that in others. In the volunteer group, HLA-DRB1*13 and HLA-DRB1*15 were significantly higher. 

As evidenced by the obtained results, HLA-A*36 was significantly higher in SCC, as compared to that in volunteers and Reinke’s edema patients. It can be concluded that being positive for HLA-A*36 increases the chance of SCC by three times. This result should be further investigated in cohort studies conducted on larger samples. Furthermore, HLA-A*24 was significantly higher in the volunteer group, as compared to that in other groups. The HLADRB1*01 was remarkably higher in Reinke’s edema, as compared to that in SCC.