Anesthesiology News - Blood Transfusion Speeds Recurrence of Ovarian Cancer - further research required

“There are now dozens of studies that demonstrate superior patient outcomes with restrictive transfusion practices,” Dr. Ereth said. “In general, the less blood you transfuse, the better your patient outcomes. In the future we will hopefully be able to further define the mechanisms of immune modulation with transfusion and then when transfusion is absolutely necessary, be able to design interventions to limit those effects.”
Until then, however, he stressed that efforts should be made in all clinical settings to minimize blood transfusion as much as possible.