ORIGINAL RESEARCH ABO Blood Group and the Risk of Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Kashmir, a High Risk Region Malik Tariq Rasool 1 & Ashfaq Hafiz 1 & Saquib Zaffar Banday 2 & Ishtiyaq Ahmad Dar 1 & Shareefa Akhter 3 & Mohd Zubair Qureshi 4 & Sajad Geelani 5 & Nazir Ahmad Dar 6 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020 Abstract Background ABO blood group has been linked with a number of diseases including cancer. Association of ABO blood type with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has been sparsely reported and the results are inconsistent. We undertook this study to analyze if any association exists between the ABO and Rh blood groups and ESCC risk. Methods We conducted a hospital-based case control study to analyze ABO and Rh blood groups in patients with histologically proven diagnosis of ESCC and compared them with healthy donors from the same population. ABO and Rh blood group status of general population was obtained from the blood bank at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) and from original articles published from time to time. Chi-Square test was performed to look for statistical significance. Results For this study, 206 patients were prospectively enrolled. Seventy-four (35.9%) patients had blood group O. Blood groups type A and type B was found each in 59 (28.6%) patients. In 108,014 healthy donors, 35.3% had blood type O followed by type B (33.66%). There was no significant difference in any of the blood types between patients with ESCC and donors (P = 0.31). Conclusion No association exists between ABO blood type and the risk of ESCC. Keywords ABO blood group . Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma . Cancer risk Introduction More than a century ago, Karl Landsteiner first described ABO blood group system [1]. Since then as many as 36 blood group systems have been recognized [2]. ABO and other blood group systems have been studied for their role in many diseases. Both positive and negative associations have been found with a number of diseases [3, 4], including cancers of stomach [5], ovary [6], pancreas [7], gall bladder [8], naso- pharynx [9], and kidney [10]. * Malik Tariq Rasool drmaliktariq@gmail.com Ashfaq Hafiz ashfaq315@gmail.com Saquib Zaffar Banday msaquibzb@gmail.com Ishtiyaq Ahmad Dar farhan1067@gmail.com Shareefa Akhter malikshareefa@gmail.com Mohd Zubair Qureshi zubairqureshi.28@gmail.com Sajad Geelani drsyedsajjadgeelani@yahoo.com Nazir Ahmad Dar nazirramzan@uok.edu.in 1 Department of Radiation Oncology, State Cancer Institute, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, India 2 Department of Medical Oncology, State Cancer Institute, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, India 3 Department of Hematopathology, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, India 4 Department of Transfusion Medicine, Government Medical College, Srinagar, India 5 Clinical Hematology, Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, India 6 Department of Biochemistry, University of Kashmir, Hazratbal, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, India Journal of Gastrointestinal Cancer https://doi.org/10.1007/s12029-020-00455-3