A person’s blood group may predict the susceptibility to oral cancers. The risk increases if he or she is addicted to tobacco chewing or smoking. The data of hospital records show that people with the blood group A are relatively at a higher risk of developing oral cancers than those with three other blood groups — B, AB and O. Those with the blood group O are least susceptible to oral cancers.
Researchers at the Pacific Dental College and Hospital, Udaipur, Rajasthan, and Al-Azhar Dental College, Thodupuzha in Kerala, have studied the records of oral cancer patients who were treated at the Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology, Bengaluru, to relate if the blood group of an individual has any link to the cancers of mouth, tongue and lips. An analysis of the records by the team, comprising Ramesh Nagarajappa and B. Fathima Jaleel, shows that patients with blood group A in the age group of 40-59 years are in the majority. Incidentally, they are habituated to chewing tobacco and smoking.
The records pertained to 235 oral cancer patients, and the data was compared with 812 controls. The risk of oral cancer decreased in the following order of blood groups: A, B, AB, and O. “By employing a simple blood grouping test during community field programmes, it was noted that people with blood group A in the age group of 40-59 years being regular tobacco chewers were at a higher risk of developing oral cancer than people with other blood groups,” the study notes. About 40 per cent of all cancers reported in India are related to mouth or oral cavity. The incidence of oral cancers ranged from 68 per cent in case of buccal mucosa to 12 per cent in case of tongue and one per cent in case of lip