Impact of perioperative red blood cell transfusion on the prognosis of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer

Surgery for advanced ovarian cancer tends to be extensive. We performed an analysis to determine whether perioperative red blood cell transfusion (PRBCT) is associated with a poor prognosis in women with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Our retrospective analysis included 314 women. The Mann-Whitney rank-sum test and chi-square test were used to analyze the clinical characteristics of the PRBCT and non-PRBCT groups, and Cox proportional hazard models were used for the multivariate analysis. PRBCT was associated with higher relapse and mortality rates in 121 (38.54 %) patients. After multivariate analysis, transfused patients were 1.59 times at risk of death (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.59; 95%CI, 1.12–2.25) and 1.63 times at risk of recurrence (HR = 1.63; 95%CI, 1.22–2.18) than non-transfused patients. PRBCT could prolong hospital stay, and increased hospital costs were significantly associated with increased cancer recurrence and overall mortality in patients with EOC.