CAP to Testify on Universal Leukoreduction

The College of American Pathologists (CAP) will tell a federal advisory panel that the government should not require universal leukoreduction (ULR) of blood and blood products until a clear national consensus emerges regarding its benefits. In testimony to be delivered by Laurence A. Sherman, MD, the College also will tell the Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability that better data on the medical and economic impact of ULR and overall blood availability must be collected and analyzed. Dr. Sherman is a member of the CAP Council on Scientific Affairs and immediate past co-chair of the College's Transfusion Medicine Resource Committee. "The CAP fully endorses advances in blood safety and recognizes the public health advantage that can result from new technologies in this area," the CAP says in its testimony. "However, CAP is concerned that these new technologies come with a cost that is not accounted for and that decisions are fully made before supported by the scientific evidence." Experts are divided over the question of whether all blood and blood products should be leukoreduced, the College points out, and recently presented and published papers have highlighted continuing controversy about whether leukocyte reduced blood products are medically beneficial for all patients who require transfusion therapy. "Until the scientific evidence clearly supports a change in policy, we believe the decision to use leukoreduced products for patient care should remain a medical decision left to the medical discretion of the physician," the College says. Also in its testimony, the College also notes the need for "much broader data" on the nation's blood supply to, in part, better assess the impact of new government requirements. "Pragmatically, we do not have systematic, broad, ongoing data on blood availability, nor do we more than partially understand donor motivation and recruitment," the CAP says. "Collection of blood availability data must be more intensive and long term than has occurred heretofore."