ABO Blood Groups Associations with Ovarian Cancer: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Background Ovarian Cancer (OC), as the seventh most common cancer throughout the world, is one of the most lethal gynecologic malignancies in women. In addition to well-studied risk and prognostic factors of OC, such as age, obesity, stage, histology, etc., ABO blood groups associations with OC has been attracted the investigators’ focus in the recent decade. The objective of this study is to find any relationships between ABO blood groups and OC through a meta-analysis. Methods The databases of PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science were systematically searched by available MeSh terms for “Ovarian Cancer”, and “ABO blood group” up to August 1, 2020. Hazard ratio (HR) or odds ratio (OR) were extracted and used from studies for outcome estimation whenever appropriate with 95% confident interval (CI). Data were analyzed using CMA v . 2.2.064. Results Fourteen papers, including 58,193 participants, entered in the systematic review. The meta-analysis indicated a substantially higher risk of developing OC in individuals with blood group A (OR 1.17, 95% CI 1.01–1.36) and AB (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.02–1.59), but the subject was not significant in individuals with blood group B (OR 1.11, 95% CI 0.81–1.51). No associations were found between OC overall survival and blood group A (HR 1.14, 95% CI 0.79–1.64), AB (HR 1.00, 95% CI 0.69–1.45), and B (HR 0.88, 95% CI 0.58–1.33). Recurrence rates of OC for blood groups A, AB, B, and O were 30.8%, 34.3%, 33.6%, and 32.0%, respectively. Rates of mortality in different blood groups are as follows: A (31.8%), AB (31.1%), B (26.2%), and O (33.8%). Conclusion This systematic review and meta-analysis revealed a considerably increased risk of developing OC among individuals with blood group A and AB. However, no substantial impacts were found for ABO blood groups on the overall survival of the OC patients.