Perioperative allogeneic blood transfusions. Survival in patients with resected carcinomas of the colon and rectum
S. D. Nathanson, B. C. Tilley, L. Schultz and R. F. Smith
Blood transfusion (BT) is reported to cause immunosuppression. We
postulated that BT might therefore adversely affect the prognosis of
carcinomas of the colon and rectum. We analyzed the overall and
recurrence-free survival of 366 patients whose colorectal carcinomas were
resected. The 199 patients who received perioperative BTs appeared to
survive less well than the 167 patients who received no blood products.
However, Cox analysis, which adjusts for other prognostic variables, shows
that the difference was not statistically significant. Although 43% of
transfused patients survived, as compared with 56.5% of nontransfused
patients, this difference was due to variables other than transfusion. This
study did not support the hypothesis that BT has an adverse effect on
survival of patients with colorectal cancer.
