ABSTRACT
T he transfusion supportive care o f patients w ith cancer is responsible for a large p roportion o f b lood transfused w ithin developed countries such as the United States, Europe and Japan. From the perspective o f b lood transfusion , it is useful to group patien ts w ith cancer in to three different categories. First, hem atologic m a lignancies in adults, w hich although com prising only 10% o f all cancers in this population , account for m uch o f the b lood p ro d u c t use, especially platelets. Sec ond , adu lt non-hem ato log ical m alignancies, w hich, are m ostly treated w ith local form s o f treatm ents, such as surgery o r rad iation therapy. A lthough, chem otherapy m ay be used, cytopenias resulting from chem otherapy w hich require transfusion su p p o rt are uncom m on, outside o f the context o f lung, breast o r ovarian carcino m as. T hird , ped iatric m alignancies. A pproxim ately 50% o f ped iatric m alignan cies are hem atological m alignancies; however, solid tu m o rs w hich occur in chil dren , such as neuroblastom as, are m ore likely to result in chem otherapy-related cytopenias and transfusion su p p o rt m ore closely resem bles th a t o f adu lt patien ts w ith hem atologic m alignancies.
