Intraoperative Allogeneic Red Blood Cell Transfusion in Ampullary Cancer Outcome after Curative Pancreatoduodenectomy: A Clinical Study and Meta-Analysis

Allogeneic blood transfusion (ABT) containing packed red blood cells (RBCs) has a known immunosuppressive effect that may affect cancer metastases and recurrence. This study examined whether intraoperative allogeneic RBC transfusion is an independent risk factor of adverse outcome in patients with ampullary carcinoma after curative pancreatoduodenectomy.

The clinical data of 67 patients with carcinoma of the ampulla of Vatar underwent pancreatoduodenectomy between 1999 and 2004 were analyzed, and long-term follow-up visits were made for all patients. Kaplan–Meier statistics and Cox proportional hazard methodology were used to perform univariate and multivariate analysis to identify independent risk factors for survival. For the meta-analysis, all English-language studies regarding blood transfusion from carcinoma of the ampulla of Vatar or ampullary carcinoma and prognostic factors or factors for survival from 1995 to 2007 were reviewed, and contingency tables were constructed from which a summary relative risk was calculated.

There were 43 patients (64.2%) who received an intraoperative ABT. The amount of intraoperative ABT ranged from 2 to 13 (mean, 4.25) units; there were 18 patients transfused at 2 units, and 25 patients transfused ≥3 units. The follow-up ranged from 2 to 90 (mean, 49) months. Forty-five patients (67.2%) died as a result of tumor progression. For patients transfused ≥3 units, median and cumulative 3-year and 5-year survivals were poorer significantly than that of patients transfused with 2 units and/or nontransfused patients (P < 0.05). After multivariate analysis, except for presence of lymph node metastasis (P = 0.023) and pancreatic invasion (P = 0.024), the intraoperative ABT ≥3 units was found to be an independent poor prognostic factor for those with ampullary cancer after curative pancreatoduodenectomy either (relative risk, 2.082; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.048–4.135; P = 0.036). Meta-analysis of 346 patients showed the summary relative risk of an adverse outcome after intraoperative ABT in these studies was 2.55 (95% CI, 1.59–4.1).

The amount of intraoperative ABT is one of the important factors that adversely influenced survival in patients with ampullary cancer after curative pancreatoduodenectomy. Healing anemia preoperatively and careful dissection to minimize intraoperative bleeding as much as possible are mandatory for reducing risk of the intraoperative ABT.