Dr Michelle Dickinson: nanotechnologist reveals whether donating blood can reduce your risk of cancer

The need for blood is constant, and every day lives are saved thanks to the generosity of blood donors. With a law change last year, even more people in New Zealand can now become blood donors. The removal of the ban on those who lived in the UK, France, or Ireland between 1980 and 1996 means thousands more Kiwis are now eligible to donate. This restriction was originally introduced due to concerns about Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD), also known as Mad Cow Disease. 

New research published in the journal Blood suggests that in addition to helping save lives, being a regular blood donor might also reduce your risk of developing certain blood cancers. 

The study compared the blood of 200 healthy male blood donors in their 60s. One group had donated blood three times a year for 40 years, while the other had donated only around five times in total. While both groups showed a similar number of natural genetic mutations that accumulate with age, the type of mutation in stem cells differed: 

• 50 percent of the frequent donors had a specific genetic variation.
• 30 percent of the irregular donors showed the same mutation.

Interestingly, this genetic change is not linked to a higher risk of blood cancers like leukaemia. In fact, lab tests showed that blood stem cells from frequent donors were good at producing healthy red blood cells. 

As we age, stem cells in our bone marrow naturally accumulate mutations, resulting in groups of blood cells with slightly different genetic makeups. Sometimes, these mutations can increase the risk of blood cancers like leukaemia. 

One gene of particular interest in this study is called DNMT3A, which is known to be mutated in people who develop leukaemia. However, researchers found that the mutations in DNMT3A observed in frequent donors occurred in areas not associated with a pre-leukemic risk. 

When you donate blood, your body responds by producing new blood cells to replace what was lost. This process places mild stress on the body, which appears to promote the renewal of healthy blood stem cells and select for mutations that favour growth rather than disease. 

These findings add another potential benefit to regular blood donation. While the research does not prove that donating blood directly reduces the risk of blood cancer, it suggests that the process of blood renewal may positively influence the genetic makeup of stem cells. 

With the recent eligibility changes in New Zealand, there has never been a better time to become a donor. By giving blood, you not only help those in need but may also support your own long-term health. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks It'd be and joining me.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Now with a fascinating science study, Doctor Michel de Concern.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Good morning, Good morning. Do you give blood?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Yeah? I do. I had the call yesterday actually New
Zealand Blood Ram the Eastern you would love to see
you again, and I was like, yeah, I know. It's
on my list for match. A big drive going on
at the moment. I mean, they always need blood, they
always need plasma.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
They always need blood, and it goes on people's to
do list because it's a bit like, oh yeah, I'll
get round to it. But I think if you were
ever in a hospital seeing the challenges that are having
around the shortages of blood, especially certain blood types, then
we might all be a little bit more motivated to
give blood. So I'm here to motivate you thanks to
a new science study. It came up in the journal
card Blood this week. And not only is giving blood

(00:56):
obviously good for those who receive it, I have been
a receiver. I am alive today because people donated blood,
and when I was a child, I needed several transfusions.
So I'm a big blood donator because I want to
give back to the fact that they're alive. A lot
of us go oh, I feel good after doing that.
Maybe I've helped somebody. Well, now you could not only
feel good for others, but you might be making yourself healthier.

(01:17):
So if that's what's going to drive you, this science
study is hopefully going to help you. So what they
did is they talk almost five hundred volunteers and there
were men aged sixty to seventy two, and half of
these men had given blood three times a year for
forty years straight. Like these were serious blood donors, so
they donated more than one hundred times in their life.

(01:38):
And then the other half of these men had only
given blood less than ten times in their life, on average,
five times in their whole life. And this study wanted
to know is there any benefit to frequently donating blood,
and they were looking at some specific genetics involved in that.
And so if you think about it, when you give blood,
you actually stress your body a little bit because you've

(02:01):
got this blood loss. And so what your body does
is it releases this hormone called EPO and you have
to suddenly make lots of new blood. And so how
do you make that blood? So it's made in your
bone marrow, but what type of blood cells are you making?

Speaker 2 (02:16):
Like?

Speaker 3 (02:16):
And this study looked at whether or not you preferentially
make a certain type or whether your body's renewing with
certain type of blood cells, and what it found is
really really interesting. So when they studied the blood, they
actually found in the blood cells of the donors who
had donated a lot there was a mutation in a
gene called DNMT three A, And that raised some flex

(02:39):
because that is also the gene that is known to
be associated with leukemia, which is a blood cancer. And
they were like, oh, no, does that mean that people
who donate blood are more likely to have leukemia? But
they found the mutation in another part of the gene,
so not the part that typically creates leukemia, but a
different part of that same gene. So they studied it more,
and they didn't studies in the lab, and they didn't

(03:01):
studies in mice, And what they found is actually, this
mutation in this gene makes it much less likely that
you'll get leukemia because this type of mutated cell, and
these frequent blood donors had large amounts of these mutated cells.
Actually preferentially grows instead of leukemia cells. And so it

(03:25):
seems like having this mutation, even though it's on the
same gene line, is preferential because it means you're much
less likely to get leukemia and you're much more likely
to have more of these healthier cells that outgrow by
fifty percent in their lab studies the leukemic cells, which
means that you're much less likely to have luma. Now,
they can't say that, but actually if you look at

(03:46):
what they did, it's really clear that there's a there's
an advantage of giving blood because what it's doing is
it's refreshing all of your blood cells and it's refreshing
them with the specific mutation that means that they're less
likely to develop intercounts for as cells. And so I
mean it's if you're thinking about doing things for yourself.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Absolutely, So what seen of people hit the specific genetic
vuriation mutation, So.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
The frequent blood donors had fifty percent of them had
this as their predominant cell line, so well, a very
large amount. And the reason why it's interesting in these
older men in this study is that as we as
we age, our cells naturally create like they sort of
accumulate mutations just as we get older, and those mutations
can lead to disease. So what was lovely is this

(04:32):
is a nice mutation that's happening that actually we know
can help to prevent disease. So yeah, a d n
MT three A is a gene they were interested in
which we know can create or cause or be one
of the sort of cause factors of leukemia. But this
mutation meant that it wouldn't become a leukemia cell. And
when they did it in the mice, literally, the mice

(04:53):
they did without this mutation developed went on to develop leukemia.
And the ones that they injected this cell type from
these people from none of them developed the cancer face sniding.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
You mentioned APO, that is what you was used with
sports endurance dopen. What was it to increase the red
blood cells?

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Is it created? Yeah, so EBO is what is naturally
least when you reduce you have a blood loss and
it helps you to create more blood cells very very quickly.
So yeah, it's been used in sports, but it's naturally there.
If you donate blood, your EPO search will happen so
that you can make enough blood so that you have
enough blood because we've just lost a liter or sal. Yeah,

(05:30):
but all of this is EPO is an important part
of this because that hormone has to be present for
this to happen.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Hey, look really quickly before we go. We should also
just mention that up until now, some people who lived
in the UK or France or Ireland between nineteen eighty
or nineteen ninety six head we're not allowed to give
blood in New Zealand because of may cow disease and things.
But that has been that then has been removed, so
that opens up that a law change took place last year,

(05:59):
so now even more people in the New Zealand can
give blood. So if you've always thought to yourself, oh,
I can't do it because I was living in Europe
around there particular the time.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
A lot of the restrictions have been released. Has also
been restrictions around same sex partnerships, and there were restrictions before,
so a lot of people who weren't able to donate
twelve months ago can definitely donate now.

Speaker 2 (06:18):
So if you're thinking about it, just gon McCall and
have a check to them about it and do it. It
takes time, It doesn't take any time. It's very simple,
and they have wonderful drinks and foods and snacks and everything. Afterwards,
you can sit there and rest.

Speaker 3 (06:34):
And think you might actually be producing it your leukemias exactly.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
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