The effect of storage on the survival of cancer cells in blood and efficient elimination of contaminating cancer cells by a leukocyte depletion filter.

Preoperative autologous blood pooling has been employed in patients with malignant tumor. However, it has not been reported how the survival period of tumor cells contaminating the preoperative pooled blood changes corresponding to the storage period. Intraoperative blood salvage (IBS) is used together with preoperative blood pooling. However, IBS in oncologic surgery is generally regarded as a contraindication. In the current study, using cytokeratin 19 (CK-19) mRNA reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction method, we examined the survival period of cultured cancer cells in the pooled blood and the efficacy of irradiation and leukocyte depletion filter in eliminating cancer cells in the blood. Expression of CK-19 mRNA was observed in the pooled blood stored for 21 days. The number of cancer cells decreased to about 1/10 in the blood stored for 14 days. We irradiated blood with cancer cells with doses of 25 Gy or 100 Gy. No change was observed in the amplified CK-19 signal strength immediately after and 1 day after irradiation at 100 Gy. After filtration of blood with cancer cells through the leukocyte depletion filter, no CK-19 mRNA was detected. Blood filtration with the leukocyte depletion filter was effective in eliminating cancer cells in the blood.