Absolute Neutrophil Count

ANC

clinical

Updated 5/16/2026

Definition

A calculated lab value (Total WBC × [Neutrophil% + Band%] / 100) stored in EHR and LIS systems to assess infection risk and chemotherapy eligibility. Critical in oncology data pipelines; values below 500 cells/µL trigger clinical decision support alerts in most EHR platforms.

Standard Abbreviation

ANC

Database Usage

-- Example column naming
CREATE TABLE claims (
  clm_id VARCHAR(50),
  anc INTEGER,  -- Absolute Neutrophil Count (count/integer value)
  ...
);

-- Example in SELECT
SELECT
  clm_id,
  anc as absolute_neutrophil_count
FROM claims;

Common uses in healthcare data

Risk stratification and population health analytics
CMS-HCC risk adjustment and RAF score calculation
Quality measure attribution and HEDIS reporting
Clinical data warehouse schema design
Value-based care contract performance tracking

Example database column name

ISO-11179 snake_case standard

-- Recommended column name
anc

-- Example DDL
CREATE TABLE healthcare_data (
  record_id   VARCHAR(50)   NOT NULL,
  anc          INTEGER,  -- Absolute Neutrophil Count (count/integer value)
  created_dt  TIMESTAMP     NOT NULL DEFAULT NOW()
);

Column names follow the ISO-11179 naming convention: lowercase, underscore-separated, using the standard abbreviation as a prefix where applicable.

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