Korean J Transplant.  2022 Nov;36(Supple 1):S32. 10.4285/ATW2022.F-1299.

Absence of influence of the ABO blood group system on hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after living donor liver transplantation

• Hwang S
• Moon DB
• Song GW
• Ha TY
• Jung DH
• Park GC
• Ahn CS
• Kim KH
• Kang WH
• Yoon YI

• KMID: 2535204
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4285/ATW2022.F-1299

Abstract

Background
The ABO blood group system may influence tumorigenesis, and blood group A has been reported to be associated with adverse oncological outcomes of patients undergoing liver transplantation (LT) for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We intended to validate the prognostic impact of the recipient ABO blood group on HCC recurrence and patient survival after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT).
Methods
This study included 843 HCC patients who underwent LDLT between January 2006 and December 2015 at Asan Medi-cal Center. These cases were divided into ABO blood group as group A (n=308 [36.5%]), B (n=216 [25.6%]), AB (n=116 [13.8%]) and O (n=203 [24.1%]).
Results
In all patients, the 5-year tumor recurrence rates were 19.8% in blood group A, 20.3% in B, 24.4% in AB, and 23.7% in O (P=0.680). Their overall 5-year patient survival rates were 84.8% in blood group A, 86.0% in B, 86.9% in AB, and 88.0% in O (P=0.603). Comparing with blood group A patients, other blood group patients did not show any statistically significant differ-ence in tumor recurrence (P=0.381) and patient survival (P=0.450). When confined to 685 patients satisfying the Milan criteria, other blood group patients did not show any statistically significant difference in tumor recurrence (P=0.772) and patient survival (P=0.464). When confined to 185 patients exceeding the Milan criteria, other blood group patients also did not show any statisti-cally significant difference in tumor recurrence (P=0.947) and patient survival (P=0.228).
Conclusions
The results of the present study revealed that ABO blood system may not influence the oncological outcome of recipients undergoing LT for HCC. Further studies are necessary to validate the prognostic impact of ABO blood system on the posttransplant prognosis of HCC.