Recipient blood group does not affect hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after living donor liver transplantation in Korea.

Purpose: This study assessed whether or not the ABO blood type affects the incidence of HCC recurrence after living donor liver transplantation (LDLT).

Methods: This retrospective observational study included 856 patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) who underwent LDLT between January 2006 and December 2016 at the Asan Medical Center.

Results: This study included 324 patients (37.9%) with blood type A, 215 (25.1%) with blood type B, 210 (24.5%) with blood type O, and 107 (12.5%) with blood type AB. ABO-incompatible LT was performed in 136 (15.9%) patients. The independent risk factors for the disease-free survival (DFS) were maximal tumor diameter, microvascular invasion, and Milan criteria. The only independent risk factor for the overall survival (OS) was microvascular invasion. The ABO blood group did not affect the DFS (P = 0.978) or OS (P = 0.261). The DFS according to the ABO blood group did not differ significantly between the ABO-compatible (p = 0.701) and ABO-incompatible LDLT recipients (p = 0.147). The DFS according to the ABO blood group did not differ significantly between patients within the Milan criteria (p = 0.934) and beyond the Milan criteria (p = 0.525). The DFS did not differ significantly between recipients with and without type A blood (p = 0.941).

Conclusions: This study demonstrated that the ABO blood group system had no prognostic impact on the oncological outcomes of patients undergoing LT for HCC.