NICE has been collaborating with NHS England on the Chemotherapy Dose Standardisation initiative which has been developed by the Medicines Optimisation and Chemotherapy Clinical Reference Groups (CRGs).
Historically, intravenous chemotherapy doses have been calculated for individual patients based on weight or body surface area (BSA). Hospitals are now moving to a dose banding approach where calculated doses are grouped and rounded to a set of discrete dose bands. There is clinical consensus that this approach does not affect chemotherapy efficacy, toxicity or clinical outcomes for patients. This initiative is anticipated to deliver a range of benefits for patients and hospital trusts including the availability of ready-made doses, reduction of waste, shorter patient waiting times, less variation and improved process and procurement efficiency.
NICE is supportive of this approach, and is working with NHS England to support horizon scanning and implementation.
When implementing NICE guidance, users are encouraged to consider the NHS England national dose banding tables and implementation tools alongside NICE supportive resources. The NICE Key Therapeutic Topic (KTT) on Chemotherapy Dose Standardisation provides further information to aid implementation.
NICE will continue to review developments in chemotherapy product and dose standardisation, to ensure that NICE processes, tools and resources are suitably aligned.
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