Blood cancer patients are among the highest users of blood products, receiving approximately one-third of all red blood cell transfusions and 60% of all platelet transfusions in Australia. This comes at a major financial cost to the healthcare system and carries potential risks for patients.

Despite how common this practice is, the clinical evidence guiding when and how to give these transfusions is surprisingly weak. Current guidelines are mostly borrowed from other areas of medicine, like elective surgery. However, blood cancer patients have vastly different needs due to the severity of their illness, exposure to toxic therapies, and their reliance on long-term transfusion support.