Significance of Perioperative Blood Transfusions in Patients Undergoing Resection of Stage I and II Non-small-cell Lung Cancers*

Perioperative blood transfusions (BT) have been reported to reduce survival in patients undergoing curative resection of lung cancers. It is postulated that a state of BT-mediated immunosuppression favors the proliferation of tumor cells not resected during surgery. To evaluate this hypothesis and to detemine factors influencing the administration of BT, we retrospectively studied the charts of 127 patients who underwent surgery for stage I and II non-small-cell carcinoma. Thirty (23.6 percent) patients received BT and 97 (76.4 percent) did not. Sex, age, race, smoking history, size and stage of the tumor, histology, extent of resection and preoperative hemoglobin values were analyzed. Only age (p = 0.01) and preoperative hemoglobin values (p (Chest 1992; 102:84–88)