Perioperative blood transfusions and prognosis in patients with curatively resected locally advanced gastric Cancer

Several reports have demonstrated an adverse effect of perioperative blood transfusions on the survival of patients with various solid tumors treated surgically. We retrospectively investigated the relationship between perioperative blood transfusions and the survival of 501 patients who underwent radical subtotal gastrectomy for locally advanced gastric cancer (stage II-IIIB) from January 1984 to December 1989. Three hundred and fifty-two patients (70.3%) received blood transfusions within the perioperative period. The transfused group included patients with tumors of larger size (5.1 vs. 4.4 cm, p = 0.001) and more advanced stage (stage IIIB: 27.6 vs. 10.7%, p = 0.0001) than the nontransfused group. Although the 5-year overall survival rate was significantly lower (52.9 vs. 66.7%, p = 0.026) in the transfused patients than the nontransfused, subgroup analysis according to the pathologic stage showed no statistically significant difference in survival in each stage between the two groups. In conclusion, we could not find any causal relationships between transfusion and prognosis in patients with curatively resected locally advanced gastric cancer. Circumstances such as advanced stage necessitating transfusions may be more important prognostic factors.