Dear Jacob

Thank you for your Official Information Act (OIA) request received by New Zealand Blood Service on Tuesday, 1 April as below:

I am curious to understand what reasoning is behind the decision to prevent former leukaemia and lymphoma patients from donating blood.
Could I please request any formal documents that support this decision?
If there are none, could I please receive a written summary of clinical advice?
I am also happy to receive links to publicly available information.

Your request is acknowledged, and a response will be forthcoming within 20 working days, by Friday, 2 May, which is the required timeframe under the Act.

Ngā mihi nui - kind regards

OIA Administrator
Te Ratonga Toto O Aotearoa - New Zealand Blood Service
71 Great South Road, Epsom, Private Bag 92-071, Auckland 1142

Every donation can help to save lives. Save lives, Give blood or plasma.
Download the new NZ Blood Service Donor App from the App Store or Google Play today!
www.nzblood.co.nz

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Dear Jacob

In response to your Official Information Act (OIA) request received on 1 April 2025.

There are two main underlying reasons for restricting potential donors from donating blood (we call this ‘deferral’):

1. To prevent harm to a recipient of a resulting product (considering that recipients are more likely than average to be vulnerable to complications of transfusion and may be immunocompromised)
2. To reduce the risk of harm to the donor, because of donating blood

Each of these issues may be relevant for potential donors with blood cancer, as follows.

Prevention of harm to a recipient:
The initial rationale for deferral was based on the very small chance that, if transfused to an immunocompromised patient, a blood transfusion that might contain malignant leukaemia or lymphoma cells could allow the blood cancer to establish itself in the recipient.

Potential blood donors, who have had treatment for blood cancers, and are in remission, still run the risk of a relapse – which may, or may not be obvious at the time of donation. Many blood cancer patients may also have received many blood transfusions, and even stem cell transplants, which can make blood testing and matching more complex. For these reasons, as a matter of abundant caution, most major blood services apply permanent deferrals on such donors.

Reduction of donation-related harm:
Blood cancers, especially leukaemia and lymphoma, affect the bone marrow and therefore the production of blood. The treatments for blood cancer may leave patients less able to replace blood cells and more prone to anaemia and infection. Blood donation may, therefore, be more difficult to tolerate and to recover from.

In the case of blood cancer, either of these issues is likely to pose only a very small risk. There has been a change in approach in some other cancers, in recent years. In New Zealand, if a person has had a solid organ tumour (example; bowel cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer) and has completed all treatment and has been cancer free for at least 5 years, that person can donate. We review the data and international trends around our deferrals on a regular basis, and it is possible that the blood cancer deferral rules will be amended, in time.

You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.

Ngâ mihi nui - kind regards

OIA Administrator
Te Ratonga Toto O Aotearoa - New Zealand Blood Service
71 Great South Road, Epsom, Private Bag 92-071, Auckland 1142

Every donation can help to save lives. Save lives, Give blood or plasma.
Download the new NZ Blood Service Donor App from the App Store or Google Play today!
www.nzblood.co.nz

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