The secretor status of blood group antigens in the saliva in people with oral cancers: a systematic review

Sep 21, 2026

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Human ABO blood group type and secretor status—the ability to release blood group antigens into body fluids—are hypothesized to relate to oral cancers and oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs). This systematic review evaluated saliva ABO secretor status in oral cancer/OPMD patients versus healthy adults using online searches across MEDLINE, Embase, PsycInfo, and Emcare through April 28, 2022, with study screening, quality appraisal, narrative synthesis, and meta-analysis of non-secretor odds.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages10

Reading Time25 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background

Methods

Results

Discussion and conclusion

Walpola et al. Systematic Reviews (2024) 13:13 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02399-8](https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-023-02399-8) Systematic Reviews RESEARCH Open Access The secretor status of blood group antigens in the saliva in people with oral cancers: a systematic review T. Walpola 1*, K. L. T. D. Jayawardene 1 and I. Weerasekara2,3,4 Abstract Background Human ABO blood group type and the antigenic secretor status are hypothesized to associate with oral diseases including oral cancer. Secretor status is the ability of individuals to secrete blood group antigens into body fluids. This study aimed to evaluate the secretor status of ABO antigens of saliva in patients with oral cancers or oral potentially malignant disorders (OPMDs) relative to healthy adults. Methods A systematic and comprehensive online search from inception to April 28, 2022, was carried out in MEDLINE, Embase, PsycInfo, and Emcare. The language was limited to English. Yielded records were screened by two independent reviewers at the title and abstract phase and at full-text screening. Studies investigating adults (≥ 18 years) with oral cancers or oral potentially malignant disorders compared to adults free of oral cancer were included in this study. Data were extracted according to the planned objectives. Methodological quality was assessed, and the findings were analyzed narratively. Meta-analyses were conducted to pool the odds ofthe non-secretor status of oral cancers and OPMDs compared to healthy adults. Results The search included a total of 34 studies from three databases. Nine duplicates were removed. During the title and abstract screening, 11 irrelevant studies were excluded. Twelve studies were screened during the full-text screening, and eight articles were eligible to be included in the final analysis. A pooled odds ratio (OR) of 3.80 (95%CI, 1.53–9.44) was estimated when pooled 1254 oral cancers and oral potentially malignant disorders patients compared to 666 healthy adults. Discussion and conclusion The odds of being a non-secretor appear to be approximately 3.8 times higher in patients with oral cancers and oral potentially malignant disorders compared to healthy adults. The lack of ABO blood group antigens in body fluids of non-secretors is more exposed to exogenous antigens than secretors. The host-parasite interactions of secretors and non-secretors underlying oral cancer and other diseases may be evidence to support or refuse them. Clinicians may use the secretor status as a detection test during their regular oral checkups for high-risk populations for oral cancers. Non-secretors can be given more attention considering them as highrisk groups, and in terms of prognosis, differences between these two groups may be expected. Keywords Secretor status, Oral cancer, ABO blood group, Saliva *Correspondence: T. Walpola [thamodiwalpola96@gmail.com](thamodiwalpola96@gmail.com) Full list of author information is available at the end of the article © The Author(s) 2023. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ()[. The

FAQs

What is secretor status in relation to blood group antigens?

Secretor status is the ability of individuals to secrete blood group antigens into body fluids such as saliva.

How was the evidence for this systematic review collected?

Online searches were conducted from inception to April 28, 2022 in MEDLINE, Embase, PsycInfo, and Emcare, followed by independent screening at title/abstract and full-text levels.

What did the study find about non-secretor odds in oral cancer and OPMD patients?

The pooled odds ratio indicated that being a non-secretor was about 3.8 times more likely in patients with oral cancers and OPMDs compared with healthy adults.

Sep 21, 2026

Uploaded by Jiven