Blood Transfusion Does not Influence the Development of Malignant Tumours

Objective: To investigate whether blood transfusion given to women during childbirth favours tumour development in later life. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: County hospital, Sweden. Subjects: 621 women who were given blood transfusions during childbirth compared with 1216 matched controls who were not given transfusions at the time of delivery. Main outcome measures: Overall and cancer-specific mortality, cancer morbidity, time interval between transfusion and diagnosis or death from cancer. Results: After 21-31 years of follow-up of cancer morbidity and 22-32 years of overall and cancer-specific mortality, we found no significant differences between the groups. There were no differences in time from transfusion to diagnosis of malignant disease, or in time from transfusion to death from cancer. Conclusion: Blood transfusion given to women during childbirth does not promote malignant tumour development in later life, nor does it increase cancer mortality.