Blood transfusion and the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer

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Abstract
A retrospective analysis was undertaken of the association between blood transfusion and long‐term results for 218 patients with stage III gastric cancer who were curatively treated by partial gastrectomy. One hundred and fifty‐two patients received blood transfusion within the perioperative period. The postoperative 5‐year survival rates were 49.3% for the transfused patients and 62.1% for the non‐transfused patients (P < 0.05). Furthermore, the postoperative survival of patients who had been transfused preoperatively was significantly lower than that of the non‐transfused patients. The preoperatively transfused group of patients were found to have tumors that were larger than those of the non‐transfused group. On the basis of the above data, it appears that the prognosis of patients with advanced gastric cancer is poorer when such patients receive preoperative blood transfusion than when patients do not receive transfusions, and that this adverse effect in the transfused patients is probably attributable to the larger size of their tumors, even though the stage of advancement of gastric cancer is the same in both groups of patients.