Background: Studies have yielded contradictory results on whether ABO blood group system is involved in the risk prognosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. The present study assessed whether ABO blood system could affect the incidence of HCC recurrence after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) using data from a high-volume transplant center in South Korea.
Methods: This retrospective observational study included 856 HCC patients who underwent LDLT between January 2006 and December 2016 at Asan Medical Center.
Results: There were 324 patients (37.9%) with blood group A, 215 (25.1%) with blood group B, 210 (24.5%) with blood group O, and 107 (12.5%) with blood group AB. ABO-incompatible LT was performed in 136 (15.9%). Disease-free survival (DFS; P=0.978) and overall survival (P=0.261) did not differ significantly among the four blood groups. DFS according to ABO blood group did not differ significantly in ABO-compatible (P=0.701) and ABO-incompatible LDLT recipients (P=147). DFS according to ABO blood group did not differ significantly in patients within the Milan criteria (P=0.934) and beyond the Milan criteria (P=0.525).
Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that the ABO blood group system appears to have no prognostic impact on the oncological outcome of patients undergoing LT for HCC. High-volume international studies are necessary to validate the results of the present study.