A tailored perioperative blood transfusion might avoid undue recurrences in gastric carcinoma patients

In a large retrospective study, the prognostic significance of blood transfusion (BT) and type of blood product transfused were searched in 640 curatively resected gastric carcinoma patients. Out of 640 patients, 222 (34.7%) received BT and the incidence of BT was reduced from 45% in the early period to 21% in the most recent period. The five-year disease-free survival was significantly (P < 0.0001) worse in the transfused group and BT became an independent prognosticator (P = 0.0061) in the multivariate analysis. Patients transfused with only packed red blood cells (PRBC) had significantly (P = 0.0258) better survival than those transfused with other types of blood products. In conclusion, BT was found to be an independent prognosticator in gastric carcinoma patients after curative resection. A tailored transfusion with PRBC, when indicated, might be the choice for better survival than whole blood or other blood products.