Chemo Calculator

The Chemo Calculator inputs patient information and calculates BSA using the Dubois formula, creatinine clearance estimation, and carboplatin dose.
  1. I take no responsibility for any errors made by Chemo Calculator, even though none should be made. Only rudimentary error checking is performed.
  2. Weight and height can be entered in either English or metric units (Only one value is required - the other is calculated. ).
  3. Entering patient age will clear the date of birth (DOB) field. Month, Day, and Year must each be non-zero to calculate age from DOB. Calculation of age from DOB does not work in Internet Explorer version 4.5 and perhaps other versions.

Notes about BSA calculation
There are several formula to estimate body surface area. The first formula to be developed and the most widely quoted is that of Dubois and Dubois [DuBois D, DuBois EF (1916) A formula to estimate the approximate surface area if height and weight be known. Arch Intern Med 17:863-871]. They derived the formula by measuring the body surface area with sticky paper molds in 9 subjects.

BSA (in m2) = 0.007184 x (ht in cm)^0.725 x (wt in kg)^0.425

This formula is known to underestimate BSA in infants, especially underweight infants [G.B. Haycock, G.J. Schwartz and D.H. Wisotsky, Journal of Pediatrics, Volume 93, pages 62-66 (1978)]. Haycock et al. proposed an alternative formula that more accurately predicts BSA in infants.

BSA (in m2) = 0.024265 x (ht in cm)^0.3964 x (wt in kg)^0.5378

There are also a number of other formulas that have been developed and used. For example, Mosteller proposed the formula

BSA = 0.01667 x (ht in cm)^0.5 x (wt in kg)^0.5

which can be easily calculated as BSA (in m2) = square root of (ht in cm x wt in kg/3600)

It should be noted that this formula was theoretically derived and is not from actual BSA measurements in human subjects.

The article by Tikuisis et al. [Ref: Tikuisis P, Meunier P, Jubenville CE. Eur J Appl Physiol 2001 Aug;85(3-4):264-71] has an excellent discussion and comparison of these formulae (Ref: Eur J Appl Physiol 2001 Aug;85(3-4):264-71). These authors showed that the formula of Gehan and George [Ref: Gehan EA, George SL (1970) Estimation of human body surface area from height and wieght. Cancer Chemother REp 54:225-235] most accurately predicts measured BSA.

BSA (in m2) = 0.01545 x (ht in cm)^0.545 x (wt in kg)^0.463 (Gehan & George BSA formula)

They went on to propose two separate formulae, one for each gender:

BSA (in m2) = 0.01281 x (ht in cm)^0.44 x (wt in kg)^0.60 for men
BSA (in m2) = 0.01474 x (ht in cm)^0.47 x (wt in kg)^0.55 for women

For practical purposes in calculating chemotherapy dose in adults patients with cancer, the BSA from these formulae is generally within 5% of each other over the range of observed heights and weights of the vast majority of adults. (Ref: J Clin Anesth 1992 Jan-Feb;4(1):4-10)

For amputees, the reference by Colangelo PM et al (Two methods for estimating body surface area in adult amputees. Am J Hosp Pharm 1984; 41:2650-5 PMID 6517088) provides a suggested approach.

There is also an Excel spreadsheet with that will calculate BSA, creatinine clearance, and carboplatin dose here.

Chemo Calculator was written in HTML and javascript by Michael Kelley and Kevin Kelley and is copyright (c) 2001. Comments or questions to Michael Kelley

Revised 1/25/2012 (added reference for amputees to Colangelo et al.