Detailed HLA typing was performed in 11 families with hereditary cutaneous malignant melanoma (CMM) and dysplastic nevi to determine if the melanoma susceptibility locus was genetically linked to the major histocompatibility complex. Previously published data from 19 other families were re-analyzed in the same manner. When data from all 30 families were pooled and CMM was defined as the disease trait, the hypothesis of linkage was rejected for all values of recombination (theta) less than 40%. Data on family members' status regarding dysplastic nevi (DN), a well-characterized precursor of hereditary CMM, were available for our 11 families and 7 previously-reported families. Linkage analysis between the combined CMM/DN trait and HLA provided strong evidence against this hypothesis. Significant heterogeneity was observed when various sub-groups of families were compared; these data suggested that preferential reporting of positive linkage findings and misclassification of study subjects' CMM susceptibility status may have contributed to previous beliefs that the hereditary melanoma gene was linked to HLA. When our data are combined with previously-published information, we conclude that there is strong evidence against linkage of a CMM/DN gene with the major histocompatibility complex.