Relationship between ABO blood groups and skin cancers Iran Rashidi Golrooye

Background: Blood group antigens, which are the major allo antigens in humans, are presenton the surface of red blood cells and various epithelial cells. As the majority of humancancers are derived from epithelial cells .Studies of associations between various cancers andthe ABO blood groups have shown elevated relative risks for some categories of disease. Todate, no report has evaluated the relationship between the ABO blood groups and the skincancers.Methods: To investigate this association, we conducted a retrospective study of malignanttumors diagnosed in Ahvaz. All tumors were histologically confirmed. Blood informationwas obtained for 98 individuals with malignant skin tumors, and the distribution of ABO andRh blood type for cases was compared with that of 419 healthy blood donors from the samegeographic area.Results: Although patients with blood group A were higher, group 0 lower than in controls,the differences were not significant. The distribution of Rh factor, blood group B and ABamong cases and controls also did not differ significantly. We found a significant relationshipbetween age and skin cancer (p=0.0001). Old patients had 1.238 times higher risk for skincancerConclusions: Further studies in larger series on blood group antigens are needed to elucidatethe relationship between these antigens and skin cancer.