Peri-operative blood transfusions in colorectal cancer

Clinical studies report reduced recurrence-free survival and increased cancer-related death after surgical treatment for cancer, when peri-operative blood transfusions were given. In this study we collected transfusion data of 212 patients who participated in a prospective study of two different resection techniques for colorectal cancer. One hundred and fifty-eight patients were transfused and 54 were not. The follow-up period for almost all patients was 5 years. The 5-year survival rate was 52% both for the transfused patients and the nontransfused patients. For subgroups of patients with Dukes' B and Dukes' C tumours no statistically significant differences were found. In the group of patients that were transfused the number of transfusions did not affect survival. In this study we could not confirm the deleterious effect of peri-operative blood transfusions on survival.