Prognostic value of ABO blood group in southern Chinese patients with established nasopharyngeal carcinoma

Abstract

Background:ABO blood group is associated with aetiology of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC); however, the effect of it on survival of patients diagnosed with NPC has not been explored.Methods:We retrospectively analysed two cohorts of southern Chinese patients with WHO histological type III: intensity-modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) cohort, 924 patients; and conventional radiotherapy (CRT) cohort, 1193 patients. Associations of ABO blood group with survival were estimated using Cox regression.Results:In IMRT cohort, we observed significant associations of blood type A with overall survival (OS) and distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS), compared with type O, after adjusting for prognostic factors. Compared with non-A blood types (B, AB, and O), type A patients had significantly lower OS and DMFS (adjusted hazard ratio (HR)=1.49, 95% CI 1.03–2.17, P=0.036; HR=1.68, 95% CI 1.13–2.51, P=0.011, respectively); similar results were obtained in CRT cohort. Subgroup analyses of the entire population showed that lower OS conferred by blood type A was not significantly modified by age, smoking status, drinking status, immunoglobulin A against Epstein–Barr virus viral capsid antigen (VCA-IgA) titre, or chemotherapy; however, lower OS was not observed in female patients or patients with early clinical stage disease.Conclusion:ABO blood group is associated with survival in NPC; patients with blood type A had significantly lower OS and DMFS than patients with non-A blood types.

ABO Blood Group, Epstein-Barr virus Infection and Prognosis of Patients with Non-metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma

“…In our study, however, there was no statistically significant difference among different ABO blood groups regardless of assortment. Moreover, when we only selected WHO type III patients in CRT cohort with chemotherapy history to imitate similar enrollment of the previous study (Ouyang et al, 2013), it still showed no significant difference between A and non-A blood group in terms of OS. Notably, there was basically no overlap on the selection of NPC patients between this study (year 2000-2003) and the prior study (Ouyang et al, 2013(Ouyang et al, ) (year 2003(Ouyang et al, -2006.…”

“…A latest research suggested that blood type A or AB was associated with an increased risk of NPC compared with subjects with blood type O (Sheng et al, 2013). In addition, NPC patients of WHO histological type III with A blood group had significantly lower OS than those with non-A blood group (Ouyang et al, 2013).…”

“…A previous study suggested that blood type A or AB was associated with an increased risk of NPC and male patients with blood group A had higher rates of distant metastasis than those in other blood groups, while the prognostic value of blood group A remained uncertain (Sheng et al, 2013). Another study reported that NPC patients of WHO histological type III with A blood group had significantly lower overall survival (OS) than those with non-A blood group (Ouyang et al, 2013). To our knowledge, however, we still lack substantial evidence to determine the relationship between ABO blood group and prognosis in NPC.…”

Prognostic Correlations between ABO Blood Group and Pre-Treatment Plasma Epstein-Barr Virus DNA in Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Receiving Intensity-Modulated Radiotherapy

“…Seemingly, the ABO blood group may be a useful prognostic factor and it also plays an important role in NPC. However, outcomes from previous studies addressing this issue remain controversial [11–13] and therefore needs to be further investigated.…”

Effect of ABO Blood Group on Survival of Resected Lung Cancer Patients: A Retrospective Study

“…including colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, nasopharyngeal carcinoma, esophageal cancer, breast cancer, skin cancer, renal cell carcinoma and gastric cancer [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Although the study by Lee et al established the survival of NSCLC patients who received curative surgery within the context of ABO blood group, the aim of their study was to investigate the prognostic role of expression of blood group antigen A in tumor cells [15].…”