Therapeutic drug monitoring of doxorubicin in paediatric oncology using capillary electrophoresis

A method for the determination of doxorubicin and its main metabolite doxorubicinol in human plasma is described. Two different sample preparation procedures are applied depending on the expected concentration: To monitor the peak plasma levels, 10 mu L of plasma are deproteinated with acetonitrile. After centrifugation, the supernatant is directly applied to the capillary by hydrodynamic injection. For the determination of lower amounts of doxorubicin and its main metabolite doxorubicinol 100 mu L of plasma is extracted by liquid-/liquid extraction with chloroform. After evaporation of the organic phase, the sample is reconstituted in acetonitrile/water (95/5 v/v) and injected into the capillary by electrokinetic injection. Idarubicin serves as the internal standard. Laser-induced fluorescence detection with an Ar-ion laser emitting at 488 nm and a 520 nm cut-off filter is used for detection. The accuracy of the method was calculated to be 3.0% at higher concentrations and 15.0% at the limit of quantification. Reproducibility data are in accordance to the generally accepted criteria for bioanalytical methods. The limit of quantification is 2 mu g/L, enabling us to monitor doxorubicin plasma levels for several days after application. Noninvasive blood sampling (from the fingertip) using heparinized capillaries was, found to be a simple and convenient procedure and provides reproducible data. Initial results show high interindividual variability in doxorubicin peak plasma levels.