Kiewe P et al. - In a trial to determine the effect of HLA-type and HLA-expression, stage, and survival in colorectal cancer (CRC), it was found that HLA-A2-positive pts exhibit poorer tumor differentiation accounting for a non-significant difference in OAS. The use of HLA-A2-negative pts as control cohort in CRC vaccinations would rather underestimate potential treatment-related survival effects. Thus, they constitute a valid auxiliary control group Methods
Pts with CRC were serologically analyzed for HLA-A2 expression
Pts were evaluated for tumor stage, grading, tumor location
Overall survival (OS) of HLA-A2-positive and HLA-A2-negative pts was compared
Results
144 pts were evaluable; median age was 62 years
UICC stage III or IV: 45.8%
Gender, location, and UICC stage were equally distributed between HLA-A2 subgroups
HLA-A2-positive pts more frequently had grade 3 histology and chemotherapy
At a median follow-up of 75.8 months, median OS for the entire study population was 123.3 months, 5-year OS was 77.5%
No statistically significant difference in OS was observed between HLA-A2-positive and -negative pts
Pts with UICC stage I and II disease lived significantly longer than pts with stage III and IV
A significantly superior OS was also found for women, independent of stage or HLA status
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