ABO blood type, long-standing diabetes, and the risk of pancreatic cancer

Abstract

AIM: To retrospectively study pancreatic cancer patients with respect to their ABO blood type and diabetes. METHODS: Our analysis included a cohort of 1017 patients with pancreatic ductal cancer diagnosed at our hospital in Tokyo. They were divided into two groups: 114 patients with long-standing type 2 diabetes (DM group, defined as diabetes lasting for at least three years before the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer) and 903 patients without diabetes (non-DM group). Multivariate analysis was performed to identify factors that are associated with long-standing diabetes. The DM group was further divided into three subgroups according to the duration of diabetes (3-5 years, 5.1-14.9 years, and 15 years or more) and univariate analyses were performed. RESULTS: Of the 883 pancreatic cancer patients with serologically assessed ABO blood type, 217 (24.6%) had blood type O. Compared with the non-DM group, the DM group had a higher frequency of blood type B [odds ratio (OR) = 2.61, 95%CI: 1.24-5.47; reference group: blood type A]. Moreover, male (OR = 3.17, 95%CI: 1.67-6.06), older than 70 years of age (OR = 2.19, 95%CI: 1.20-3.98) and presence of a family history of diabetes (OR = 6.21, 95%CI: 3.38-11.36) were associated with long-standing type 2 diabetes. The mean ages were 64.8 ± 9.2 years, 67.1 ± 9.8 years, and 71.7 ± 7.0 years in the subgroups with the duration of diabetes, 3-5 years, 5.1-14.9 years, and 15 years or more, respectively (P = 0.007). A comparison of ABO blood type distribution among the subgroups also showed a significant difference (P = 0.03). CONCLUSION: The association of pancreatic cancer with blood type and duration of diabetes needs to be further examined in prospective studies. © 2013 Baishideng. All rights reserved.