Platinum antitumour agents: a review of (bio)analysis

This paper summarizes analytical techniques in order to get a clear picture of the ins and outs of the (bio)analysis of platinum-containing compounds. The antitumour agent cisplatin has become an indispensable drug for the cure of a variety of cancer diseases. Since its introduction in the early seventies, about 2,000 related platinum complexes were designed to devoid the dose-limiting nephrotoxicity. Some of them were introduced for clinical trial, such as carboplatin and iproplatin. To investigate the mechanism of action and pharmaco-kinetic behaviour, several interesting assays for total and specific platinum determination in biological matrices have been developed, each with its own possibilities and limitations.