Blood type A and familial breast cancer

Abstract

The association between blood type A and breast cancer was evaluated in 648 patients with family histories of the disease, 1897 unselected patients, 4577 institutional blood donor controls, and 14,508 extramural blood donor controls. The familial patients were classified into three pedigree groups in which the lifetime breast cancer risks to first‐degree relatives ranged from 11% to 32%. In the pedigree group associated with a relatively low risk to relatives, the authors saw a significant excess of blood type A individuals when compared with either control group. The unselected patient population, which was considered to refer to a general series of patients, also showed an excess of blood type A individuals with either control but a significant excess only in comparison with institutional controls. Patients from high‐risk pedigrees with inherited forms of breast cancer showed no association when compared with either control group. The effect of blood type A on breast cancer risk was considered too small to be of use in identifying women at high risk. The results further suggested that the effect of blood type A on breast cancer development was capable of being masked by the effect of breast cancer susceptibility genes and/or that the inherited and noninherited types involve different etiologic mechanisms.

Association of ABO Blood Group and Risk of Breast Cancer

“…While another study reported a positive association between type O and breast cancer risks [31]. Other studies observed positive associations with type A or B among women with a family history of breast cancer [32]. Other studies support the significant associations between the blood type and breast cancer risk [19,[33][34][35].…”

ABO and Rh Blood Groups in Relation to Ovarian, Endometrial and Cervical Cancer Risk Among The Population of South-East Siberia

“…Additionally, several studies reported contradictory results. Although series of case-control studies failed to establish ABO blood groups as a major risk factor for breast cancer (Hems, 1970;Anderson and Haas, 1984;Dede et al, 2010), A group of authots (Tryggvadottir et al, 1988) reported that familial breast cancer cases had a 2-fold higher prevalence of blood group B than did the sporadic cases, and the frequency of this blood group in non-affected relatives of cases was significantly reduced. Moreover, another study has demonstrated that the absence of the Rh factor (Rh-) was positively associated with a 50% increased breast cancer risk (Ronco et al, 2009).…”

Blood Type, Hormone Receptor Status, HER2/neu Status, and Survival in Breast Cancer: A Retrospective Study Exploring Relationships in a Phenotypically Well-Defined Cohort

“…3 Another noteworthy finding included underrepresentation of blood type AB. Breast cancer patients with blood type AB also had the highest rates for pre-menopausal and lymph node negative status, although differences did not achieve statistical significance likely due to low numbers of patients with this blood type among the cancer cohort.…”