O Blood Type Is Associated with Unfavorable Distant-metastasis-free Survival in Female Patients with Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma: A Retrospective Study of 2439 Patients from Epidemic Area

Abstract

Purpose : To identify the association between ABO blood type and the survivals in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. Patients and methods : We retrospectively analyzed 2439 consecutive non-metastasis nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients between January 2001 and December 2004 at the Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center. Survival outcomes were compared using Kaplan-Meier method. Univariate and multivariate analysis was performed by Cox regression model. Chi-square test was performed to compare categorical variables. Results : In the whole patients, compared with non-O blood type (A, B, and AB) patients, O blood type patients had significantly lower 5-year distant metastasis-free survival (DMFS) (adjusted hazard ratio (aHR)= 1.268, 95% CI 1.010-1.592, P=0.041). Moreover, we observed in female patients, O blood type patients had significantly lower 5-year overall survival (OS), disease-specific survival (DSS) and DMFS than those with non-O blood type (aHR=1.495, 95% CI 1.032-2.165, P=0.034 for OS; aHR=1.566, 95% CI 1.054-2.328, P=0.026 for DSS; aHR=1.779, 95% CI 1.056-2.998, P=0.030 for DMFS). In male patients, there was no significant difference observed between O blood type patients and non-O blood type patients in any survival endpoints. Conclusion : O blood type was associated with an unfavorable DMFS in female patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma in epidemic area, which might contribute to unfavorable OS and DSS in female patients, even contribute to a lower DMFS in the whole patients. It might be beneficial to predict metastasis so as to guide the treatment in female patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma in epidemic area.

Blood Group O Positive is Susceptible for Different Types of Malignancy

“…This finding was also seen in several research works. 32,33 However, this was not supported by some researchers. 34…”

Are People With Blood Group O More Susceptible to Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma and Have Worse Survival Rates? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…Out of the remaining articles, 4 were repeat publications, 2 were not case-control studies, and 2 lacked complete data. Ultimately, a total of 6 studies ( 14 – 17 , 22 , 23 ) including 6938 patients with NPC were selected for this meta-analysis ( Figure 1 ). The baseline characteristics of the analyzed cohort were shown in Tables 1 , 2 .…”

“…Two studies ( 22 , 23 ) compared the 3- and 5-year OS rates of patients with blood group O and those with a non-O blood group (A, B, and AB). It was revealed that there was no significant difference in the 3-year OS rate between blood groups (HR: 0.966; 95% CI: 0.785-1.188; p = 0.742), as shown in Figure 4A , whereas the difference in the 5-year OS rate neared significance (HR: 0.860; 95% CI: 0.739-1.001; p = 0.051) ( Figure 4B ), indicating that NPC patients with blood group O had a worse trend in 5-year OS rates than those with a non-O blood group.…”

“…The 3- and 5-year OS, LRRFS, and DMFS rates of patients with blood group A and those with a non-A blood group (O, B, and AB) could also be analyzed from these two studies ( 22 , 23 ). The results showed that blood group A had no correlation with the prognosis of NPC (all P values>0.05), regardless of whether the 3- or 5-year OS, LRRFS, or DMFS rate was analyzed ( Table 3 ).…”

“…Given the controversial results regarding the ABO blood group as a prognostic factor for NPC, we conducted this systematic review to assess the role of different blood groups in NPC and patient survival. The data from two studies ( 22 , 23 ) were pooled for this meta-analysis. Although there was no difference in the 3-year OS, LRRFS or DMFS rate, a trend towards worse 5-year OS rates and significantly worse 5-year LRRFS and DMFS rates were found in NPC patients with blood group O (HR: 0.860, 95% CI: 0.739-1.001, p = 0.051; HR: 0.838, 95% CI: 0.720-0.975, p = 0.022; HR: 0.849, 95% CI: 0.730-0.988, p = 0.034, respectively), while there was no significant difference between patients with blood group A and a non-A blood group, regardless of whether the 3- and 5-year OS, LRRFS or DMFS rate was analyzed.…”