ABO and Rh blood groups and risk of colorectal adenocarcinoma

Previous studies have observed an association between ABO blood group and risk for certain gastrointestinal malignancies, including pancreatic and gastric cancer. However, it is unclear whether there is such an association with colorectal cancer (CRC). In this study, possible relationships between ABO blood groups and Rh factor and KRAS status in patients with CRC were investigated.

In 1,620 patients with CRC, blood group and Rh factor were examined and compared with the control group of 3,022,883 healthy volunteer blood donors of the Turkish Red Crescent between 2004 and 2011. The relationship of blood groups with wild type K-ras status was also evaluated.

Overall distributions of ABO blood groups as well as Rh factor were comparable between patients (45% A, 7.2% AB, 16.4% B, 31.4% O, and 87.2% Rh+) and controls (42.2% A, 7.6% AB, 16.3% B, 33.9% O, and 87.7% Rh+) (p=0.099). However, there were statistically significant difference between patients and controls with respect to O vs. non O blood group (p=0.033) and marginally significant difference for A vs. non-A blood group (p=0.052). Among patients, the median age was 62 (range 17-97), 58.1% were male. There were no statistically significant differences respect to sex and K-ras status.

In present study, the ABO/Rh blood groups were statistically significantly associated with the risk of CRC. There were no relationship between K-ras status and ABO blood group and Rh factor. However further studies with larger numbers of patients are needed to establish the role of blood groups and to define the mechanisms by which ABO blood type affect CRC.