The Relationship between ABO Blood Groups, Rhesus Factor and Breast Cancer

Background: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women and one of the most important causes of death among them. Many of previous studies showed a strong association between ABO, Rh blood groups, and the occurrence of malignant tumors.

Objectives: The present study aimed to determine the association between ABO blood groups and Rhesus factor with prevalence of the breast cancer.

Methods: In this study, we identified 50 research documents from data based search engines. The research papers were selected by using the primary key-terms including breast cancer, ABO blood type, and Rhesus blood type. We reviewed the 36 papers that harmonized our criteria were comprised and remaining papers were excluded. The current study was included more than 847811 normal subjects as control and more than 19208 breast cancer patients for ABO blood groups and more than 251939 subjects as control and more than 11116 breast cancer patients for Rh factor.

Results: Blood group (A) has high incidence of breast cancer (40.62%), blood group (O) has (33.46%); (B) (17.31%) and blood group (AB) has (8.091%) incidence of breast cancer. Blood group (A) has the highest and blood group (AB) has least association with breast cancer. Rhesus positive (Rh+) blood group has high incidence of breast cancer (87.20%) and Rhesus negative (Rh-) blood group has least association with breast cancer (12.80%).

Conclusion: It can be concluded that blood group (A) and Rh+ have a high risk of breast cancer, while blood type (AB) and Rh- are at low risk of breast cancer. So, physicians should carefully monitor the females with blood group (A) and Rh+ as these females are more prone to develop breast cancer. To reduce the prevalence of the breast cancer and its burden, screening, and preventive programs for breast cancer especially in young women are highly recommended. Further studies are necessary to determine the mechanisms by which ABO blood type may influence the risk of breast cancer.

Keywords: ABO blood group system, Rhesus factor, Rh, Blood type, Breast cancer.