Perioperative blood transfusion and cancer prognosis. Different effects of blood transfusion on prognosis of colon and breast cancer patients

A detailed retrospective analysis was undertaken of the effect of perioperative blood transfusion on long-term survival of 113 patients with Dukes' Stages A, B and C1 cancer of the colon and 383 patients with invasive cancer of the breast who were treated in our institution between 1973 and 1978 and followed for 5 to 10 years. In the patients with colon cancer, a significant adverse effect of transfusion on long-term survival was seen. In this group there was a cumulative 5-year overall survival of 48% for the transfused and 74% for the nontransfused patients (P = 0.007, log-rank test). Perioperative blood transfusion was associated with a relative risk of 3.42 for all deaths (P = 0.005) and 4.25 for death due to cancer (P = 0.03), after adjustment for other important variables such as age, sex, stage, location of tumor, surgical procedure, and preoperative hemoglobin level. In contrast, in our study group of patients with breast cancers, who all underwent a modified radical mastectomy, no effect of blood transfusion on long-term survival was seen. Multivariate analysis adjusting for size of tumor, number of positive regional lymph nodes, menopausal status, estrogen receptor status and the addition or absence of chemotherapy, did not show any increased risk in all deaths or death due to cancer associated with blood transfusion. Although no definite explanation is available, our data show that there seems to be a difference in the relationship between perioperative blood transfusion and survival for colon and breast cancer patients.