Perioperative blood transfusion adversely affects prognosis after nephrectomy for renal cell carcinoma

It has been previously suggested that perioperative blood transfusion (PBT) may induce adverse oncological outcomes following cancer surgery. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the effect of PBT on the prognosis of patients who underwent nephrectomy due to renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

Study included 1,159 patients who underwent radical nephrectomy or partial nephrectomy (PN) between the years 1987 and 2013. Univariate and multivariate models were used to evaluate the association of PBT with cancer-specific survival (CSS), disease-free survival, and overall survival (OS).

Of 1,159 patients undergoing nephrectomy, 198 patients (17.1%) received a PBT. The median follow-up was 63.2 months. Risk factors for PBT included: lower preoperative hemoglobin (P<0.01), size of the renal mass (P<0.05), open surgical approach (P<0.01), and capsular invasion. Receipt of a PBT was associated with significantly adverse disease-free survival (hazard ratio [HR] = 2.1, P = 0.02), metastatic progression (HR = 2.4, P= 0.007), CSS (HR = 2.5, P = 0.02), and OS (HR = 2.2, P = 0.001). In the current study, 582 patients underwent PN; of these, 87 (14.9%) required PBT. The association of PBT with outcome remained significant in this subgroup after controlling for patient and tumor-related variables with respect to metastatic progression (HR = 5.9, P = 0.006), CSS (HR = 5.8, P = 0.007) and OS (HR = 2.1, P = 0.05).

PBT is associated with reduced recurrence-free survival, CSS, and OS in patients undergoing nephrectomy for RCC. Worse oncological outcomes are also found in a separate analysis for patients undergoing PN.