The use of blood components in patients with malignancy

Abstract

Many recent improvements in the management of patients with malignancy would have been impossible without parallel improvements in our ability to support patients through periods of severe bone marrow aplasia produced by the disease or aggressive therapy of the disease. The purpose of this article is to review the use of transfusion of platelets, erythrocytes, and granulocytes in the treatment of these patients.

The effects of blood transfusion on the prognosis of patients with gastric cancer

“…Blood transfusion enhances suppressor cell activity and simultaneously reduces lymphocyte responder status, but, so far, no evidence for a specific action or agent has been found. The relation between BT and cancer [31,32] has been studied retrospectively both experimentally and clinically. The experimental studies are contradictory and confusing (even papers by the same authors) [33][34][35].…”