Understanding Your ANC
ABSOLUTE NEUTROPHIL COUNT

Calculate your ANC with our
ANC Calculator

The immuno-suppressive state of Hodgkin’s patients experiencing chemotherapy or stem cell transplantation can be tracked using a formula called the Absolute Neutrophil Count, or ANC. The ANC is a way for doctors to scientifically determine the stage that the immune system is in after response to chemotherapy.

ANC is the real or actual number of white blood cells that a patient has to fight an infection. White blood cells are the part of the patients blood that work against possible bacteria, fungus, or viruses that may make the patient sick. A normal ANC is greater than 2,500. A safe ANC is greater than 1,000. After chemotherapy, BMT,  and radiation, a patient's ANC may drop low as 0. When the ANC drops below 500 , it is important that patient's remain away from crowds and people who have colds, flu, or runny noses. If a patients is in the hospital with ANC below 500, he will be placed in protective isolation. This is to protect the patient from being exposed to possible infections.

Doctors are able to determine the ANC by using the CBC (Complete Blood Count) results drawn from a patient’s blood labs. In determining the ANC, the “WBC or White Blood Cell Count, ” Neut or Neutrophil Count,” and “Bands” should be identified from the lab printout.

The formula to determine ANC is as follows:

 (Neut + Bands) (WBC x 10¹) = ANC

Example: Calculating the Absolute Neutrophil Count

The following is an example to help you better understand how to determine ANC. The following is a printout of the lab results from a 16year old Hodgkin's patient 11 days post stem cell transplant. The highlighted figures are the numbers that we are going to need when finding this patients ANC.

(Neut + Bands) (WBC x 10¹) = ANC
(45 + 29) (1.1 x 10¹) = 814

Calculating ANC Example from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

The following example will help calculte ANC when lab results return WBC in complete count, rather than in decimal form.. For this example, a Patient's WBC is 4,000 and he has 20 Neut and 10 Bands. To find out what the ANC is, add the Neut plus bands and write this number as a decimal 20% +10% 30% or .30 Multiply the WBC number by the sum of the decimals.

(WBC) (%Neut + %Bands)  = ANC
(4,000) (.20 +.10) = ANC
(4,000) (.30) = 1,200