HLA type and survival in lung cancer.

A significant positive association between antigens HLA Aw19 and/or HLA B5 and a disease-free survival time of one year for patients with lung cancer has been reported but not confirmed. We have HLA-typed 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 less than 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 trails using these antigens as stratification factors.