CANCER PATIENTS AND BLOOD TRANSFUSION DEMAND IN A RESOURCE-CONSTRAINED SETTING: A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY

Background: Cancer patients on treatment have anaemia as a common complication resulting from deceased red blood cell production, increased destruction of circulating red blood cells or bleeding from cancer. Blood transfusion in cancer patients is quite frequent as a hospital-based study demonstrated that 34% of blood donated in a health facility were transfused to cancer patients.

Objective: This study aims to assess the indications for, pattern of, and frequency of blood transfusion in cancer patients who received chemotherapy in an oncology specialist center in a low-resource setting.

Methods: The study was a retrospective study carried out on cancer patients who received chemotherapy at the Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital Zaria over three and a half years period from September 2016 to March 2020.

Results: The mean age of patients was 46.1 ± 14.8 years with half 78(50.3%) of the participants within the 41-60 years age group and majority 116(74.5%) were females. The average baseline haemoglobin level of the patients was 9.88 ±2.15 g/dl and the average drop in haemoglobin from baseline to first transfusion was 1.25g/dl. There was an average of 3.92 units of blood transfused, with an average of 2.13 transfusion events. The average units of blood transfused per transfusion event was 1.84 while the Transfusion Severity Index (TSI) was 4.88.

Conclusion: The study found a high incidence of baseline and chemotherapy induced anaemia in cancer patients. The patients received frequent blood transfusion due to anaemia as indicated by a high transfusion severity index of 4.88. There is need for use of guidelines to streamline transfusion needs and increase the use of alternatives to blood transfusion so as to reduce the demand on blood transfusion and the accompanying adverse effects in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.