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Recent reports suggest a possible link between ABO blood groups and morbidity for astrocytomas. Eight hundred and forty-four consecutive brain tumors, operated for the first time and histologically verified at the Institute of Neurosurgery of the University of Padua, have been collected for statistical analysis of the variations in the distribution of ABO blood groups among patients affected by tumors of different histological type but with a common histo-embriological derivation from the neuroectoderma. These neoplasms include therefore 565 astrocytomas, 56 tumors of the ependymal series, 63 tumors of the oligodendroglial series, 114 acoustic nerve neurinomas and 46 medulloblastomas. The results of this study are the following: a) the frequency of tumors of neuroectodermal origin does increase among individuals belonging to group A, and the overall variation appears to be of high statistical significance; b) variations observed for astrocytomas are of low value, and however not significant; c) the main differences involve acoustic nerve neurinomas and medulloblastomas: again, this variation affects mainly patients belonging to group A.

Statistical analysis of the variations in blood group distribution among 470 consecutive cases of meningioma, operated at the Institute of Neurosurgery of the University of Padua, shows a statistically significant increase in the frequency of group B.

The statistical significance of variations in Wood group distribution among patients affected by chromophobe pituitary adenoma has been debated in recent reports. One hundred and fifty hypophyseal tumors (117 chromophobe adenomas and 33 adenomas of other histological type), operated for the first time at the Institute of Neurosurgery of the University of Padua, have been collected for such an analysis. No difference of statistical significance was detected by the present survey, although this fact is probably due to the small numbers of patients in each subgroup.