The Mosteller method is used to calculate what parameter?

• A. Determining Lean Body Mass
• B. Calculating Body Surface Area (BSA) for chemotherapy dosing
• C. Estimating Renal Clearance
• D. Calculating Body Mass Index

Answer: (B)

Mosteller is used to estimate body surface area, a size measure used to tailor chemotherapy doses to a patient’s body. The formula is BSA = sqrt((height in cm × weight in kg) / 3600), with the result in square meters. For example, 170 cm tall and 70 kg yields about 1.82 m². Dosing by BSA aims to normalize drug exposure across different body sizes because distribution and clearance of many chemotherapies relate to body surface area rather than weight alone. While practice evolves and some regimens use other methods or targets (like AUC-based dosing), Mosteller’s method remains a standard way to compute the parameter that informs chemo dosing.

This differs from BMI, which is simply weight relative to height and not used for chemo dosing. Lean body mass is a different sizing approach used in some contexts, and renal clearance estimates rely on formulas like Cockcroft-Gault or MDRD that focus on kidney function rather than overall body surface area.