# Dose banding of anticancer drugs

Source: https://onco.cc/protocols/dose-banding-of-anticancer-drugs/  
OnCo record `dose-banding-of-anticancer-drugs` (Protocol). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Dose banding means your calculated dose is rounded to the nearest of a set of standard doses, so the pharmacy can make doses in advance. The difference from your exact dose is kept small, and studies show it gives about the same amount of drug in your blood as an individually calculated dose.

## Summary

In dose banding the individually calculated dose (by body surface area, weight or AUC) is rounded to a predefined standard dose for a range of calculated doses, so that doses can be prepared in advance, waiting times cut, waste reduced and products quality-controlled before use. BOPA (2025) asks that adult anticancer doses be banded where bands exist, to the NHS England (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) or SOPPG (Scotland) national tables, and notes banding is not usually used in children; for carboplatin, a changed creatinine or weight leads to a new calculated dose, from which the new band is chosen, never a percentage change from the old banded dose.

The pharmacokinetic case comes from Chatelut (2012): using clearance data from 1,012 adults and six drugs, banding into three BSA bands changed individual doses by minus 14% to plus 22% but gave a spread of drug exposure very similar to BSA dosing, with no significant loss of precision except for paclitaxel (32.0% against 30.7%), while flat dosing was less precise for four of the six drugs. A hospital that allowed a maximum deviation of 10% found more prepared doses could be reissued and less waste for all agents studied except carboplatin. The NHS England tables and principles, which set UK limits, could not be read.

## Fields

- Kind: Protocol
- Last checked: 2026-11-11
- Also known as: dose banding; banded doses; standard dose bands; chemotherapy dose rounding; national dose banding tables; pre-made chemotherapy doses

## Connected records

- protocols: [Anticancer treatment prescribing and pharmacy verification before each cycle](https://onco.cc/protocols/sact-prescribing-and-pharmacy-verification/), [Body surface area and weight-based dose calculation for anticancer drugs, including full doses in obesity](https://onco.cc/protocols/body-size-based-dose-calculation/), [Carboplatin dose calculation by the Calvert formula and kidney function](https://onco.cc/protocols/carboplatin-dose-calculation/)
- technologies: [Body-surface-area dosing](https://onco.cc/technologies/body-surface-area-dosing/)
- drugs: [Carboplatin](https://onco.cc/drugs/carboplatin/), [Paclitaxel / nab-paclitaxel](https://onco.cc/drugs/paclitaxel/)

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