Predictive and Prognostic Value of ABO Blood Group in Patients Using Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor for Advanced Renal Cell Carcinoma

ABS TRACT Objective: We investigated the prognostic and predictive effects of the ABO blood group system on patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors for advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC). Material and Methods: In this retrospective observational study, the data on the patients with known ABO blood group, who were administered nivolumab for mRCC, were reviewed. The tumor response rates and sur- vival were analyzed based on the ABO blood group. Results: A total of 89 patients were included in the study. The median age of the patients was 57 (range: 24-83 years) years, and 67% (n=60) of the patients were male. Moreover, 43%, 18%, 9%, and 30% of the patients had blood groups A, B, AB, and O, respectively. Our study had a median follow-up time of 11 months. Although the groups did not differ significantly in progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) according to the blood groups, patients who had the B blood type survived longer. For patients with blood types A, B, AB, and O, the median PFS was 5.3 months, 8.4 months, 3.7 months, and 7.8 months, respectively (p=0.8), and the median OS was 14.5 months, 20.3 months, 12.0 months, and 16.5 months, respectively (p=0.8). Conclusion: Although the groups did not differ significantly according to the ABO blood group, the patients with the B blood group survived relatively longer. These results sug-gested that further studies with more patients should be conducted.