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Previous studies showed that the HLA class I region is associated with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)–positive Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) and that HLA-A is the most likely candidate gene in this region. This suggests that antigenic presentation of EBV-derived peptides in the context of HLA-A is involved in the pathogenesis of EBV⁺ HL by precluding efficient immune responses. We genotyped exons 2 and 3, encoding the peptide-binding groove of HLA-A, for 32 single nucleotide polymorphisms in 70 patients with EBV⁺ HL, 31 patients with EBV⁻ HL, and 59 control participants. HLA-A*01 was significantly overrepresented and HLA-A*02 was significantly underrepresented in patients with EBV⁺ HL versus controls and patients with EBV⁻ HL. In addition, HLA-A*02 status was determined by immunohistochemistry or HLA-A*02–specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) on 152 patients with EBV⁺ HL and 322 patients with …