Determination of Paclitaxel in Human Plasma by UPLC-MS-MS

A sensitive and specific ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandam mass spectrometry method for the quantitation of paclitaxel is established. A 200 microL human plasma sample is spiked with 13C6-labeled paclitaxel as an internal standard and extracted with 1.3 mL of tert-butyl methyl ether. The chromatographic separation is achieved within 2 min on a C18 column with methanol-0.1% aqueous formic acid (75:25, v/v) as a mobile phase at a flow rate of 0.4 mL/min. Multiple reaction monitoring mass transitions of m/z 876.2 to 307.9 and 882.2 to 313.9 are measured for paclitaxel and the internal standard, respectively. For paclitaxel at the concentrations of 1.021, 5.105, and 10.21 microg/mL in human plasma, the extraction recoveries are 105.87%, 103.91%, and 100.39%, respectively. The linear quantitation range of the method is 0.1021-20.42 microg/mL in human plasma with a correlation coefficient greater than 0.999. The intra- and inter-day accuracy for paclitaxel at 1.021, 5.105, and 10.21 microg/mL levels in human plasma fell in the ranges of 95.01-99.23% and 95.29-101.28%, and the intra- and inter-day precision were in the ranges of 6.37-10.88% and 7.21-9.05%, respectively. This method is successfully applied to the determination of the half-life of paclitaxel in human plasma.