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

Guan-Nan Wang^1,2*, Shu Zhou^1,2*, Chen Chen^1,2, Hui Chang^1,2, Yalan Tao^1,2, Shan Liu^1,2, Xiao-Hui Wang^1,2, Wen-Wen Zhang^1,2, Yang Liu^1,2, Song-Ran Liu^1,2, Shi-Rong Ding^1,2, Xin Yang^1,2, Zheng-Qian Ye^1,2, Yi-Feng Gao³, Yun-Fei Xia^1,2✉

1. State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangdong Key Laboratory of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma Diagnosis and Therapy, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, P. R. China.
2. Department of Radiation Oncology, Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center, Guangzhou 510060, P. R. China.
3. Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, P. R. China.
*These authors contributed equally to this work

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.

Keywords: Nasopharyngeal carcinoma, Blood type, Female patients, Distant-metastasis-free survival.

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How to cite this article:
Wang GN, Zhou S, Chen C, Chang H, Tao Y, Liu S, Wang XH, Zhang WW, Liu Y, Liu SR, Ding SR, Yang X, Ye ZQ, Gao YF, Xia YF. 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. J Cancer 2019; 10(5):1297-1306. doi:10.7150/jca.28372. Available from http://www.jcancer.org/v10p1297.htm