AB0 blood groups and oncological and functional outcomes in bladder cancer patients treated with radical cystectomy

We investigated AB0 blood groups prevalence according to preoperative and pathological tumor characteristics, and their association with oncological outcomes, and renal function decline in a contemporary large cohort of bladder cancer (BCa) patients, who underwent radical cystectomy (RC) at a tertiary referral center.

We retrospectively evaluated data of patients with histologically confirmed and clinically non metastatic BCa, who underwent RC between 2014 and 2021 at our Institution. Kaplan-Meier (KM) plots and Cox regression (CR) models tested the relationship between AB0 blood groups and local recurrence-, metastasis-, cancer specific mortality-, and overall mortality-free survival. Logistic regression (LR) models tested the association between AB0 blood groups and renal function decline, defined as an estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate (eGFR) < 60 mL/min, at post-operative day 1, discharge and 6- months of follow-up.

Of 301 included patients, 128 (42.5%) had group A, 126 (41.9%) had group 0, 28 (9.3%) had group B, and 19 (6.3%) had group AB. Patients with group 0 developed higher rates of muscle- invasive BCa (p = 0.028) with high-grade features (p = 0.005) at last bladder resection, and less frequently received preoperative immunotherapy with Bacillus of Calmette-Guerin (p = 0.044), than their non-0 counterparts. Additionally, these patients harbored more advanced pathologic tumor stage at RC (p = 0.024). KM plots showed no differences among all tested cancer control outcomes between AB0 blood groups (p > 0.05 in all cases). Patients with group AB presented the lowest median eGFR at each time point. In multivariable LR analyses addressing renal function decline, group AB was independently associated with eGFR< 60 mL/min at discharge (Odds Ratio: 4.28, p = 0.047).

Among AB0 blood groups, patients with group 0 exhibited the most aggressive tumor profile. However, no differences were recorded in recurrence or survival rates. Group AB independently predicted renal function decline at discharge.