Safety and utility of autologous blood transfusion for resection of metastatic liver tumor

Background/Aims: The purpose or this study was to evaluate the safety and e fficacy of predeposit autologous blood transfusion for resection of hepatic metastases. Methodology: We examined stored blood from 25 patients with advanced colore ctal or gastric cancer for carcinoembryonic antigen mRNA using reverse-tran scriptase-polymerase chain reaction assay to detect cancer cell in the auto logous blood. We also retrospectively evaluated no transfusion CA, n=44), a utologous transfusion (B, n=15), and homologous transfusion groups (C, n=26 ) for perioperative liver function and long-term outcome after- undergoing resection of Liver metastases. Results: In 5 of 25 patients, carcinoembryonic antigen mRNA was detected im mediately after blood donation and after 7 days of storage, but not after 1 4-21 days of storage. The cumulative 5-year survival rates for groups A, B, and C were not different. However, disease-free survival with colorectal l iver metastases was significantly higher in group A than in group C (P=0.01 9). Total bilirubin concentrations in group C on the first postoperative da y were also significantly higher than group A (P=0.025). Conclusions: Stored autologous blood may contain cancer cells, but these de crease or disappear after storage for more than 7 days. For hepatic resecti on of metastases, transfusion avoidance yields the optimal outcome.