HLA and DR antigen frequencies in melanoma patients: possible relation to disease prognosis.

The frequency of HLA-DR5 was significantly increased in a large group of malignant melanoma patients (33.7% vs 20.5% for controls). The subgroup of patients with poor prognosis showed both a DR5 increase and a relative decrease in DR1. Although none of these differences was significant after correction for the number of antigens tested, similar findings have been made for other malignancies and further studies should be encouraged.