Association of perioperative allogeneic blood transfusions and prognosis of patients with gastric cancer after curative gastrectomy

BACKGROUND: The relationship between perioperative allogeneic blood transfusions (PABTs) and prognosis in patients with gastric cancer remains controversial. METHODS: Six hundred five consecutive patients with gastric cancer who underwent curative gastrectomy from a single center were enrolled in this retrospective study. Clinical and pathologic variables were prospectively collected. The effect of PABTon the long-term survival of patients with gastric cancer after curative gastrectomy was evaluated by univariate and multivariate analyses. RESULTS: The overall 5-year survival rate was 65.0%. On univariate analyses, PABT had a statistically significant negative impact on 3-year and 5-year survival rates (66.3% vs 80.5% [P 5.005] and 38.7% vs 76.4% [P ,.001], respectively). However, multivariate analyses revealed that duration of operation (P 5.009), tumor size (P 5.001), and tumor stage (P ,.001), instead of PABT, were independent prognostic factors. CONCLUSIONS: Our study indicates that PABT is not an independent prognostic factor for longterm survival in patients with gastric cancer after curative gastrectomy. Crown Copyright 2014 Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.