Trace determination of tamoxifen and 5-fluorouracil in hospital and urban wastewaters

Tamoxifen and 5-fluorouracil are widely used in cancer therapy. They are highly toxic (teratogenic, mutagenic, etc.), as are most of the anticancer drugs. Two methods were set up to analyse these drugs in wastewaters to evaluate the potential for environmental contamination by cytostatic agents. Liquid-liquid extraction followed by purification on OASIS (R) MCX cartridge and gas chromatography with mass spectrometry detection (GC-MS) was used for the analysis of tamoxifen. 5-Fluorouracil was extracted with an ENV+(Isolute) cartridge (solid-phase extraction), derivatized with pentafluorobenzyl bromide (PFBBr) and detected by GC-MS. Both methods showed good recoveries (> 70%), repeatability (RSD < 10%) and limits of detection (LOD 6-15 ng/L). Wastewaters from a residential area, a hospital, and sewage-treatment plants (STPs) were analysed using the analytical methods developed in this study. Tamoxifen was detected in wastewaters of the hospital, residential area, and influent of STPs, but not in treated wastewaters. 5-Fluorouracil in all wastewaters was below the LOD of the analytical method.