Morbidity and mortality among recipients of blood from preleukemic and prelymphomatous donors

The present investigation was designed to test the admittedly speculative hypothesis that a factor involved in the etiology of human lymphatic and hematopoietic neoplasms may be transmitted by blood transfusion prior to the clinical onset of illness in the donor. One hundred and five New York State residents, who received blood from donors who subsequently developed neoplasms of the lymphatic or hematopoietic tissues, were identified and followed for an average period of 7.05 years. No recipient was found to have developed a leukemia or lymphoma following receipt of blood from a preleukemic or prelymphomatous donor. The results of this study should be considered priliminary because the small size of the recipient group might mask even a large increase in risk among the recipients.