Blood transfusion and survival following nephrectomy for carcinoma of kidney.

Blood transfusion has been reported adversely to affect survival following surgery for a number of malignancies. We have examined retrospectively the records of 126 patients undergoing nephrectomy for renal carcinoma and established that 80 (63%) were transfused. Comparison of the two groups of patients, after controlling for differences in age, sex, tumour stage and haemoglobin level, showed that the transfused patients did not necessarily have poorer survival. In this study, peri-operative transfusion did not appear to have an adverse effect on long-term survival following surgery for renal cancer.