Background: "Dose-banding" is a concept of cytotoxic drugs standardization allowing the preparation in advance of standardized rounded doses (SRD covering the most frequently prescribed doses rounded to +/-5%. Standard doses will be prepared in advance by batch in order to increase production capacity and at the same time to regulate pharmacy workflow as well as to reduce patient waiting time.
Purpose: To identify anticancer drugs suitable for dose banding and to fix standardized doses.
Methods: The interesting molecules are first selected in accordance with several criteria: preparations frequency, long-term physicochemical stability after reconstitution, repetition of the prescribed doses and savings opportunity. The selected molecules were: Carboplatin, Cetuximab, Cisplatin, Cyclophosphamide, Doxorubicin, 5-Fluorouracil, Gemcitabine, Oxaliplatine, Paclitaxel, Rituximab, Trastuzumab and Vinorelbine. We established an inventory of the prescriptions retrospectively for a period of six months in order to highlight the most often prescribed doses. For the analysis, we fixed bands with a standard deviation of +/- 5%, 7% and +/- 10%.
Results: Standardization of doses of chemotherapy was deemed interesting if > or =60% of the doses were standardisable with a maximum of five SRD and a minimum of one delivery per week, in order to guarantee a good turnover of the batch. A maximum of 5% standard deviation is added to those three criteria, the deviation currently accepted among our medical staff. After analyzing 3506 prescriptions, 7 molecules are eligible: Doxorubicine, 5-Fluorouracil infusion, 5-Fluorouracil pump, Gemcitabine, Paclitaxel, Rituximab, Trastuzumab and Vinorelbine, with a percentage of standardisation of 77% [SRD: 30 mg), 61% [SRD: 700 mg, 750 mg, 800 mgl, 75% (SRD: 4000 mg, 4500 mg, 5000 mg), 72% [SRD: 1600 mg, 1800 mg, 2000 mg), 61% [SRD: 140 mg, 150 mg, 160 mgl, 64% (SRD: 600 mg, 700 mg, 750 mg], 71% (SRD: 350 mg, 400 mg. 450 mgl et 62% [SRD: 40 mg, 50 mg] respectively.
Conclusion: This preliminary study allows us to consider implementing the dose banding concept in order to optimize the chemotherapy circuit at our institution.