Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology
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Randomized Controlled Trial Clinical Trial
Blood transfusion-modulated tumor recurrence: first results of a randomized study of autologous versus allogeneic blood transfusion in colorectal cancer surgery.
Allogeneic blood transfusions have reportedly been associated with a poor prognosis in patients with curatively resected cancer. To control for immunosuppression induced by a speculatively causal allogeneic blood transfusion, we designed a randomized study in which the control group received autologous blood transfusions not related to any condition of immunosuppression. ⋯ As indicated by these first results, the blood transfusion modality has a significant effect on tumor recurrence after surgical treatment of colorectal cancer. A change in the practice of blood transfusion might thus potentially surpass the impact of any recent adjuvant treatment strategies.