ABO(H) Blood Group Substances of the Gastric Juice in Peptic Ulcer, Cancer of the Stomach, and Atrophic Lesions of the Gastric Mucosa

Abstract

The suggestion of an association between the ABO blood groups and specific gastric lesions is one of the most provocative recent developments in human genetics and gastroenterology. It seems reasonably certain from the data available that there is a markedly increased frequency of blood group A in patients with gastric cancer,1-7 of blood group 0 in patients with peptic ulcer,8-12 and of nonsecretors of the ABO (H) blood groups in patients with duodenal ulcer. 13 -17 Recent evidence also indicates that pernicious anemia, considered by many to be a precancerous condition of the stomach, is linked to a higher incidence of blood group A and a reduced frequency of blood group 0.18 -22 A higher incidence of the blood group A in gastric cancer has been questioned, however, by some investigators.23, 24 Others have pointed out that geographic25 and ethnologic26 factors may affect the frequency of the blood group A in this disease. Conflicting evidence has also been presented as to whether or not high incidence of the blood type A is associated with all types and sites of gastric cancer,7 or only those located near the pyloric antrum,27, 28 It has been suggested27 , 28 that a high incidence of the blood group A is characteristic, not of gastric cancer alone, but of any lesion, benign or malignant, localized in the pyloric area, whereas that of blood group 0 is characteristic of a pathologic involvement of the fundus of the stomach.