Some cancer survivors may find these precautions frustrating. If you have questions about whether you can donate, please contact the blood collecting center in your community. Potential donors whose cancers had not spread (in situ cancers) and required no further treatment besides surgery to remove the cancer may need to wait only until they’ve healed from their surgery and feel well again to donate blood.
(The time can vary at different blood centers.) For example, the American Red Cross allows most people who have had cancer to donate if the cancer was treated at least 1 year ago and the cancer has not come back.
Even if cancer cells were present in donated blood, the immune system of the person getting the blood would destroy the cells. This suggests that the chance of getting cancer from a blood donor with cancer is extremely small, if it exists at all. They found no increased cancer risk in those who got blood from those who were found to have cancer soon after donating. To check this, a group of researchers looked back in time at people who had received blood from donors who had developed cancer within 5 years of giving the blood. While cancer has very rarely been transmitted through transplants of solid organs such as kidneys, there have been no reports of cancer transmission by blood transfusion. If you aren’t sure if you are well enough to give blood, talk with your cancer care team before you try to donate. This is done partly to protect the donor, but it may also add an extra margin of safety for the person who receives the blood. Some people who have had cancer are not allowed to donate blood for a certain length of time after treatment.