In oncology, when a medical team decides to administer a drug treatment to a patient, the combination of anticancer compounds and its administration procedures are set out in a formal protocol. This document serves as the reference throughout the care given to the patient.

The protocol provides a precise description of the context of prescribing the drugs (essentially, the type of cancer involved), the drugs used with their dosage and their mode of administration (intravenous, oral), the treatment cycles (number of sessions, the period between them, the expected and observed toxicity, modifications to the treatment), and the duration of the treatment.
Generally, the protocol applied to the patient conforms to the protocol recommended by the experts for each type of cancer. These recommendations are based on studies that have proven the benefit/risk ratio of the therapy.