Blood type is related to cancer risk. People at risk should be tested early

Blood type is a genetic trait, and its relationship with cancer has always attracted attention. Studies have found that people with certain blood types are more likely to develop certain cancers, such as pancreatic cancer and gastric cancer, but it cannot be simply understood that a certain blood type will cause cancer. People at high risk should test early and adjust their diet to reduce the risk of cancer and death.

The most common blood types for humans are A, B, AB and O. Blood type depends on the type of antigen on the surface of red blood cells and is usually defined using the ABO and RhD systems. Each ABO blood type can be RhD positive or RhD negative at the same time, so there are a total of 8 blood types.

A Danish study of more than 480,000 patients in 2023 used a comprehensive disease risk analysis approach to extensively screen for associations between blood type and disease. At the same time, in contrast to previous studies, this study compared each blood type with all other blood types, not just with type O.

The study found that after analyzing 1,312 diseases, the incidence of 101 diseases was statistically significant between ABO blood types, and 28 were statistically significant between RhD blood types. These associations include tongue cancer, monocytic leukemia, cervical cancer and cardiovascular disease.

In 2021, a Swedish follow-up study of 5.1 million people modeled and analyzed 1,217 diseases, and found that 49 diseases were related to ABO blood type and 1 disease was related to RhD blood type. Among cancers, type A blood (compared to type O blood) was significantly associated with a higher risk of pancreatic cancer, a slightly increased risk of cancer of unknown primary, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, and cervical cancer, and a slightly decreased risk of colorectal cancer, but the associations were not significant.

Blood type B increases risk of pancreatic cancer

The relationship between pancreatic cancer and blood type has been confirmed by many studies. Pancreatic cancer, known as the “silent killer,” is often found in the late stages, so early detection and prevention are particularly important for people at risk.

A study published in Cancer Research, the journal of the American Association for Cancer Research , conducted a comprehensive analysis of the ABO genotypes of 1,534 pancreatic cancer cases in 12 databases in the United States, Europe and Asia, and found that compared with type O blood, the risk of pancreatic cancer in people with type A, AB and B blood increased by 38%, 47% and 53%, respectively.