The effect of storage on the metastatic potential of tumor cells collected in autologous blood

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Abstract
Malignancy in a potential autologous blood donor is considered by some as a relative contraindication for the collection of autologous blood. There is, however, little experimental information regarding the safety of transfusion of autologous blood that may contain viable tumor cells. The purpose of this study was to determine if tumor cells seeded into autologous blood retain their metastatic potential and, if so, for how long. A well-established model of the pulmonary metastasis of B16/F10 (F10) melanoma in C57BL/6 mice was used. Equal numbers of F10 cells were seeded into CPDA-1 blood from the mice or into saline, and the number of lung tumors was evaluated 14 days after infusion of blood or saline. The CPDA-1 blood seeded with F10 cells was stored for up to 21 days in transfer packs at 4 to 6.degree.C, and the metastatic potential of F10 cells in the stored blood was ascertained as above. F10 cells seeded into autologous blood that was then transfused without storage gave rise to the same number of metastatic foci (404 .+-. 32 metastases) as did those cells transfused in saline (374 .+-. 38, p = 0.5). In contrast, the number of metastatic foci resulting from the transfusion of blood containing F10 cells decreased progressively after storage of the blood (7 days = 124 .+-. 14 metastases; 14 days = 7 .+-. 1; 21 days = 2 .+-. 1; all p values < 0.001 vs fresh blood). Also, the predilection of F10 cells to metastasize to the lung was unchanged by storage in blood. These studies show that, in this animal model, 1) the infusion of F10 cells coincident with the transfusion of autologous blood is not associated with a greater number of metastases than would have been expected from the same number of circulating tumor cells in the absence of the autologous blood transfusion, and 2) the storage of autologous blood containing F10 cells is associated with a progressive decrease in the metastatic potential of the F10 cells after their reinfusion. These findings support the currently accepted practice of including patients with cancer as autologous blood donors.