The adverse effect of perioperative blood transfusion in lung cancer.

Perioperative blood transfusion appears to increase the risk of recurrence and death in patients with surgically resected lung cancer. This finding is consistent with that in other cancers and several studies in lung cancer report similar risk elevations. We have reanalyzed the Lung Cancer Study Group data relevant to this question, assessing the potential confounding effects of some prognostic factors not examined previously. The results are nearly identical to those reported earlier, suggesting that increased risk is attributable to blood transfusion and not to confounding by known prognostic factors.