Donor deferrals....or not for Cancer

[Linda0623]

Hi All-

Any help on this subject I would be so-o-o-o appreciative!!!!

We have a moderate donor program that is predominently autologous donors. We struggle a bit with cancer deferrals. Sometimes my staff become confused because the medical directors ar not as clear cut as I would like them to be:cries:. Can anyone help me with locating some general guidelines on deferring potential donors with + Cancer hx or are willing to share how they do it?

Many thanks in advance,

Linda

[Jeni Matsunaga]

Our donor program is primarily allogeneic, but we process a few autologous donors every month. The autologous donors are not deferred by cancer as long as they meet the general requirements for donation. For allogeneic donors, our Medical Director updated the cancer deferral guidelines a few years ago:

Melanoma: 10 years following removal and completeion of treatment with no reoccurrence

Solid Organ Tumors: 5 years following removal and completion of treatment with no reoccurrence (includes Breast, Prostate, Lung, Colon, Ovary)

Lymphoma: Permanent deferral

Leukemia and other hematopoietic cancers: Permanent deferral

Edited March 25, 2009 by Jeni Matsunaga
incomplete

[ShowDogDad]

Just under 1/2 of our donors are autologous. We let our auto donors donate with a history of cancer. However, we do put in deferrals just in case they should ever try to donate as an allo. Leukemia, Lymphoma and Hodgkins disease are indefinite. Any type of malignant melanoma is 5 yrs from last chemo or radiation.

[Linda0623]

Thank you for the help!!! I think I am going to present a combination of the two of your guidelines to my medical directors....we do occasionally have the auto donor who wants to donate allo as a directed or community, hence the need to make some CA deferrals to guard against in apppropriate future allo collections...hence some confusion for my techs handling deferrals.....

[Kip Kuttner]

The policy at my community blood center is to defer for 5 years donors with any malignancy other than leukemia or lymphoma. Those with leukemia or lymphoma are indefinitely deferred. If a person calls us and tells us that they have just been diagnosed, we do not notify consignees receiving any products donated prior to the diagnosis. We do consignee notification for products donated after the diagnosis.

[Kip Kuttner]

I forgot to add that there are many approaches to this and it really boils down to what your medical director is comfortable with. Some institutions have a 1 year deferral for cancers. Oh, I also treat in-situ cancers as non-cancer. That is no deferral.

[PSanai]

The blood center I work at will allow a donor to donate for most cancers one year after treatment and as long as the donor remains cancer free.

Childhood leukemia (onset 18 years or younger) is a 5 year deferral post treatment.

Lymphomas and adult leukemia (19 years and older) are indefinate deferrals.

Like many others, we allow autologous donors with cancer to donate but place a deferral on them as outlined by our criteria listed above.

[mercy4]

Hi All-

Any help on this subject I would be so-o-o-o appreciative!!!!

We have a moderate donor program that is predominently autologous donors. We struggle a bit with cancer deferrals. Sometimes my staff become confused because the medical directors ar not as clear cut as I would like them to be:cries:. Can anyone help me with locating some general guidelines on deferring potential donors with + Cancer hx or are willing to share how they do it?

Many thanks in advance,

Linda

The hospital that I am employed with is primarily allogeneic, however, we do serve a lot of autologous patients/donors every month. Our autologous donors are not deferred due to any cancers as long as they meet all of our other requirements for thier donation. For allogeneic donors, our Medical Director updated the cancer deferral guidelines a short time ago and continues to study this field daily.

Melanoma: 10 years following removal and completeion of treatment with no reoccurrence

Solid Organ Tumors: 5 years following removal and completion of treatment with no reoccurrence (includes Breast, Prostate, Lung, Colon, Ovary). However, this may be changing to a 2 year deferral soon.

Lymphoma: Permanent deferral

Leukemia and other hematopoietic cancers: Permanent deferral

[geekay]

Hi there,

something which was rather bothering me here.

But, from this reply, am I to asume that, "autologous donation" can be collected even if he/she is "Hepatitis carrier" "

Why I am asking this is , few years back, there was an issue which I had faced. The patient was perfect in all other factors. and the surgeon wanted to go for autologous. After collection of the unit, as a protocol we follow in our hospital, ( to be free from legal problems) we screened that blood also. He was HBsAg positive. As per the norm, are we supposed to use this as it is for "autologous Transfsuion" ?

Maybe some experienced persons can give inputs ?

with regards,

engeekay2003

[heathervaught]

Engeekay,

We also perform full testing on all of our autologous donors at our blood center (same BC as PSanai). We will allow release of an autologous unit to the transfusing facility when it tests positive for anything EXCEPT HIV (State law prohibits us from releasing those units). The components are labeled as biohazard/for autologous use only and a letter is sent to the facility attached to the unit explaining the test results. Any positive results also will post a deferral to the donor, so that they would not be eligible to donate as a Volunteer donor.