OBJECTIVETo investigate the relationship of ABO blood group with the clinicopathological characteristics in patients with gastric cancer and to assess whether the ABO blood group was associated with prognosis.

METHODClinicopathological and follow-up data of 2838 patients with gastric cancer who underwent radical gastrectomy in our department from June 2008 to October 2013 were analyzed retrospectively. The distribution of ABO blood group under different clinicopathological characteristics and the overall 5-year survival of ABO blood group were compared.

RESULTSThere were no significant differences in clinicopathological characteristics among patients with different ABO blood groups (all P>0.05). The 5-year overall survival(OS) rates were 57.3% for patients with blood type A, 54.7% for type B, 57.4% for type O, and 53.5% for type AB. Though there was no significance difference of survival among ABO blood groups(P=0.722), while the subgroup analysis indicated that stage III( patients of blood group Non-AB had a poorer OS compared to those of blood group AB(25.2% vs. 44.7%, P=0.014); smoking patients of blood group Non-AB had a poorer OS compared to those of blood group AB(53.4% vs. 74.9%, P=0.044).

CONCLUSIONNeither clinicopathological characteristics nor overall survival are associated with the ABO blood group, however, stage III( and smoking patients of blood group Non-AB have a poorer OS compared to those of blood group AB.