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Significant association between ABO blood group and pancreatic cancer
Julia B Greer, Mark H Yazer, Jay S Raval, M Michael Barmada, Randall E Brand, David C Whitcomb
Julia B Greer, Randall E Brand, David C Whitcomb, Department of Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, 3708 5th Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States
Mark H Yazer, Jay S Raval, Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States
Mark H Yazer, The Institute for Transfusion Medicine, 3636 Blvd of the Allies, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States
M Michael Barmada, David C Whitcomb, Department of Human Genetics, Graduate School of Public Health, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States
David C Whitcomb, University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, 5150 Centre Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15232, United States
Author contributions: Greer JB was responsible for study concept and design, acquisition of data, drafting and critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; Yazer MH and Whitcomb DC were responsible for study concept and design, acquisition of data, study supervision, and drafting and critical revision of the manuscript for important intellectual content; Raval JS and Brand RE were responsible for acquisition of data, interpretation of data, and drafting the article; Barmada MM was responsible for analysis and interpretation of data and drafting the article.
Supported by The Frieda G. and Saul F. Shapira BRCA Cancer Research Program (Greer JB, Whitcomb DC), the Wayne Fusaro Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund (Whitcomb DC) and the Jack F. Walsh Pancreatic Cancer Foundation (Brand RE)
Correspondence to: Mark H Yazer, MD, FRCPC, The Institute for Transfusion Medicine, 3636 Blvd of the Allies, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, United States. myazer@itxm.org
Telephone: +1-412-2097522 Fax: +1-412-2097325
Received: January 23, 2010
Revised: April 12, 2010
Accepted: April 19, 2010
Published online: November 28, 2010
AIM: To evaluate whether the ABO blood group is related to pancreatic cancer risk in the general population of the United States.
METHODS: Using the University of Pittsburgh’s clinical pancreatic cancer registry, the blood donor database from our local blood bank (Central Blood Bank), and the blood product recipient database from the regional transfusion service (Centralized Transfusion Service) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, we identified 274 pancreatic cancer patients with previously determined serological ABO blood group information. The ABO blood group frequency was compared between these patients and 708 842 individual, community-based blood donors who had made donations to Pittsburgh’s Central Blood Bank between 1979 and 2009.
RESULTS: The frequency of blood group A was statistically significantly higher amongst pancreatic cancer patients compared to its frequency amongst the regional blood donors [47.63% vs 39.10%, odds ratio (OR) = 1.43, P = 0.004]. Conversely, the frequency of blood group O was significantly lower amongst pancreatic cancer patients relative to the community blood donors (32.12% vs 43.99%, OR = 0.60, P = 0.00007). There were limited blood group B (n = 38) and AB (n = 17) pancreatic cancer patients; the overall P trend value comparing patient to donor blood groups was 0.001.
CONCLUSION: The ABO blood group is associated with pancreatic cancer risk. Future studies should examine the mechanism linking pancreatic cancer risk to ABO blood group.
