Patients More Likely To Be Diagnosed With Cancer Soon After Blood Transfusions

Main Category: Cancer / Oncology
Also Included In: Blood / Hematology
Article Date: 12 Dec 2007 - 7:00 PDT

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Blood transfusion recipients have a slightly increased risk of cancer in the months immediately after the transfusion, but this may be due to the need for blood transfusions in patients with undiagnosed cancer.

Some researchers have speculated that blood transfusions could increase the recipient's risk of cancer through transmission of biologic agents or effects on the immune system. To investigate this, Henrik Hjalgrim, M.D., Ph.D., of Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen and colleagues identified nearly 890,000 individuals who were cancer-free when they received blood transfusions after 1968 in Sweden and Denmark. The researchers tracked the patients to determine whether they were at increased risk of subsequent cancer.

Among this group, 80,990 cancers were diagnosed, whereas only 55,788 cancers were expected. During the first six months after a transfusion, patients had more than a fivefold increase in overall cancer risk compared with the general population, but after this period, the risk declined rapidly to levels approaching those of the general population .

"There has been speculation that blood transfusions promote tumor growth and this could precipitate incipient cancers. However, we speculate that other mechanisms unrelated to blood transfusion could account for the observed increased incidence of cancer at early times after blood transfusion," the authors write.

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Notes:

The Journal of the National Cancer Institute is published by Oxford University Press and is not affiliated with the National Cancer Institute. Visit the Journal online at http://jnci.oxfordjournals.org/.

Contact: Mads Melbye, co-author, http://www.ssi.dk

Source:
Highlights from the Dec. 11 JNCI
Liz Savage
Journal of the National Cancer Institute

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