Correlates of Demands for Blood Transfusion in Cancer Patients Receiving Chemotherapy in Oncology and Palliative Care Clinic in Federal Medical Centre Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria

Introduction: From time to time, the administration of chemotherapy to patients diagnosed with cancer is delayed partly due to confirmation of anaemia from their PCV test results.Objective: This study aimed to examine the probable disease and treatment related variables that are likely to cause deficit in the percentage level of patients’ blood during the course of receiving chemotherapy.Method: A descriptive-correlation research design was employed with the use of secondary data obtained from 145 patients’ case folders accessed from Medical Record Units in the Department of Oncology and Palliative Care.Results: The findings shows statistically significant correlation for three research questions out of four as; patients with sarcomas had higher demand for blood transfusion compared to those who had carcinomas (30.5% vs 26.5%, p=0.741). Patients with advanced stage cancer disease had higher demand for blood transfusion compared to those who did not have advanced stage cancer (86.8% vs 5.6%, p=0.000). Patients who had 7-10 cycles of chemotherapy had higher demand for blood transfusion with 15(83.3%, p=0.000) than those who had 11-14 cycles of chemotherapy. Lastly, patients who had single-agent chemotherapy had higher demand for blood transfusion than those who had combined chemotherapy agents (30.0% vs 25.3%). But, the correlation was not statistically significant at (p>0.05).Conclusion: Overall, the findings from this study has confirmed evidence from previous studies that incidence of anaemia detected in cancer patients during administration of chemotherapy is often induced by both the patient’s disease complications and noxious effect of chemotherapy agents.