ArticleClinical epidemiology2020
Blood Transfusion and the Risk of Cancer in the US Population: Is There an Association?
Article in Clinical epidemiology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.
- Assessing the relationship between blood transfusion products and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma incidence: A longitudinal retrospective cohort study (2004-2022).Journal of family medicine and primary care · 2025Article
- Physical activity level and stroke risk in US population: A matched case-control study of 102,578 individuals.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeWe aimed to test if blood transfusion is a risk factor for the prevalence of cancer. PATIENTS AND
methodsWe conducted secondary analyses using the NHANES database from 1999 to 2016. We included all individuals who received a blood transfusion with known cancer comorbidity (diseased or not). We used univariate logistic regression to identify any possible association between history of blood transfusion and the prevalence of cancer with adjustment for different co-founders was done. Regression results were expressed as odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval (95% CI) for both adjusted and unadjusted models.
resultsA total of 48,796 individuals were included in the final analysis: 6333 of them received a blood transfusion, while the other 42,463 individuals did not. In individuals who received a blood transfusion, the most prevalent cancer was breast cancer (3.4%), followed by prostate (3.0%), non-melanoma skin (2.4%) cancers, while non-melanoma skin (1.2%), prostate (1.1%) and breast (1.1%) cancers were the most prevalent in the no transfusion individuals. There was a significant association between the reported history of blood transfusion and the overall prevalence of cancer in both the unadjusted (OR= 3.47; 95% CI= 3.23-0.72; P-value< 0.001) and adjusted model (OR= 1.86; 95% CI= 1.72-0.2.01; P-value< 0.001). On the level of individual cancers, a significant reduction in cancer prevalence was found in patients with breast, cervix, larynx, Hodgkin's lymphoma, melanoma, prostate, skin (non-melanoma), skin (unspecified), soft tissue, testicular, thyroid, and uterine cancers.
conclusionResults did not imply any concrete association between cancer risk and history of blood transfusion. These findings would help in debunking the myth of increased cancer risk following blood transfusion.
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