The ABO blood group is an independent prognostic factor in patients with resected non-small cell lung cancer.

BACKGROUND: The ABO blood group is reported to be associated with the incidence and patient survival for several types of malignancies. We conducted a retrospective study to evaluate the prognostic significance of the ABO blood group in patients with resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

METHODS: A total of 333 patients (218 men and 115 women) with resected NSCLC were included in this study. In addition to age, sex, smoking status, preoperative serum carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) level, operative procedure, histology of tumors, pathological stage (p-stage), and adjuvant therapy, the association between the ABO blood group and survival was explored.

RESULTS: The 5-year overall and disease-free survival rates were 83.0% and 71.6% for blood group O, 67.2% and 62.3% for blood group A, 68.8% and 68.8% for blood group B and 69.2% and 65.3% for blood group AB, respectively. A multivariate analysis for overall survival showed the ABO blood group (group A vs. group O: HR 2.47, group AB vs. group O: HR 3.62) to be an independent significant prognostic factor, in addition to age, sex, smoking status, p-stage, and serum CEA level. A multivariate analysis for disease-free survival also showed the ABO blood group to be an independent significant prognostic factor.

CONCLUSIONS: The ABO blood group is an independent prognostic factor in patients with resected NSCLC. Studies of other larger cohorts are therefore needed to confirm the relationship between the ABO blood group and the prognosis among patients with resected NSCLC.