[Separation of urologic tumors cells from Cell Saver blood using a membrane filter. A new method in autotransfusion?]

Tumor cells of three urological longterm cell lines have been labelled with 35[S]-Methionin and added to red cell concentrates. Red cell concentrates rich in tumor cells were passed through a cell saver and two special membranfilters under standard conditions. The 35[S]-Methionin labelled tumor cells were detected by liquid scintillation counting. On an average, only 0.027% of the radioactivity was left after passing through the cell saver and the membran filters in the 12 experiments. If investigations in clinical use of cell-saver and membran filter confirm these results, there will be significant consequences in urological tumor surgery by the possibility of transfusing the salvaged autologous blood.