# What are cancer survivors deferred from donating blood?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-cancer-survivors-deferred-from-donating-blood/267330>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 3, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-cancer-survivors-deferred-from-donating-blood/267330 "2004-10-03T15:54:35Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-cancer-survivors-deferred-from-donating-blood/267330/1 "2004-10-03T15:54:35Z")

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So far as we know, cancer isn’t contagious. If any stray cancer cells got into someone’s donation, wouldn’t the recipient’s body just kill 'em? Or is this a precaution against something else?

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**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-cancer-survivors-deferred-from-donating-blood/267330/2 "2004-10-03T16:30:46Z")

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According to [this](http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/content/ETO_1_4x_Donation_by_Cancer_Survivors.asp?sitearea=ETO):

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> The risk of getting cancer from a blood transfusion is extremely small. Even if cancer cells were present in donated blood, the immune system of the person receiving the blood would destroy the cells. A possible exception would be in transfusion recipients with weakened immune systems, which might not be able to fend off the cancer cells. Because of this possibility, in certain cases cancer survivors may not be allowed to donate blood for other people.

Apparently, it’s not a sweeping ban on donations for all cancer survivors, and the restrictions on who can and cannot donate can differ between organizations.

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**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-cancer-survivors-deferred-from-donating-blood/267330/3 "2004-10-03T17:58:42Z")

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I was told that one Red Cross restriction was if you ever had chemotherapy. I don’t know the reason for sure. It may be a “better safe than sorry” thing, since we don’t know all the underlying causes of cancer.

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**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2004, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-cancer-survivors-deferred-from-donating-blood/267330/4 "2004-10-03T23:20:16Z")

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Blood donation organization (like the Red Cross) generally do have a better safe than sorry rule for a lot of things, on the off chance something gets through their testing. Personally, I think their donation rules go too far (the fact that they might reject you just because your gay. I’m not sure of the statistics, but I’m pretty sure the rate of AIDS and STD’s in homosexuals is probably pretty close to that of heterosexuals now. It’s not the 1970’s anymore.) But I digress.

But yeah, the organizations don’t want to be sued or kill off the people their blood is designed to save, so if there’s a small chance it could hurt someone, they’ll probably reject the blood.