These infections may contribute to the progression of pancreatic cancer by acting jointly with other pancreatic cancer risk factors that impact the inflammation and immune response, such as smoking and obesity, and the ABO genetic variant, recently linked to pancreatic cancer through genome-wide association studies.
We suspect that ABO genotype/phenotype status influences the behavior of H. pylori which in turn affects gastric and pancreatic secretory function, and these ultimately influence the pancreatic carcinogenicity of dietary- and smoking-related N-nitrosamine exposures, and thus risk of pancreatic cancer.
LKM test identified four genes that were significantly associated with risk of pancreatic cancer after Bonferroni correction (P<1×10(-5)): ABO, HNF1A, OR13C4, and SHH.
Genome-wide association studies have conclusively linked the ABO locus to pancreatic cancer, venous thromboembolism, and myocardial infarction in the presence of coronary atherosclerosis.
These consist of high penetrance genes including BRCA2 or PALB2, to more common genetic variation associated with a modest increase risk of pancreatic cancer such as genetic variation at the ABO blood group locus.
Since distinct genome-wide association studies linked the ABO gene with myocardial infarction (MI) in the presence of coronary atherosclerosis and with coronary artery disease, these findings may not only enhance our understanding of adhesion molecule biology, but may also provide a focus for several novel research avenues.
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in ABO, sonic hedgehog (SHH), telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT), nuclear receptor subfamily 5, group A, member 2 (NR5A2) were found to be associated with pancreatic cancer risk.
It is noteworthy that 2 recent genome-wide association studies of pancreatic cancer have reported that variants in ABO blood type and in 3 other chromosomal regions are associated with risk for this cancer, thus providing new insight into pancreatic cancer etiology.
These data support the hypothesis that ABO glycosyltransferase activity influences pancreatic cancer risk rather than actions of other nearby genes on chromosome 9q34.
The associations of the ABO blood group gene and NR5A2 gene variants with PC discovered by recent genome-wide association studies may link insulin resistance, inflammation, and thrombosis to pancreatic carcinogenesis.
Common variants in ABCG8 and ABO are strongly associated with serum phytosterol levels and show concordant and previously unknown associations with CAD.