Multicomponent high-performance liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry analysis of ten chemotherapeutic drugs...

Progress in chemotherapy leads to increased numbers and variety of chemotherapeutic drugs, and multicomponent analysis of these drugs is a necessary step. We used liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry and developed a multicomponent analysis of ten drugs used in chemotherapy: vindesine, vincristine, vinblastine, doxorubicin, epirubicin, ifosfamide, cyclophosphamide, irinotecan, docetaxel, and paclitaxel. We selected five internal standards for each category of drug, because the ionization efficiencies of product ions varied widely. The total run time was 22min, applying a gradient elution of water and acetonitrile in the presence of 0.1% formic acid. The lower limit of quantification was 50ng/wipe samples for vindesine, vincristine, and vinblastine, and 5ng/wipe samples for the remaining seven drugs. Accuracy (88.6-112.9%, 85.2-111.7%) and precision (1.0-11.5%CV, 3.6-14.4%CV) in within-run and between-run assays of QC solutions were acceptable. Without outliers, in within-run and between-run assays of QC samples, accuracy was 90.6-113.9% and 91.1-130.4%, respectively, and precision was 2.2-19.0%CV and 4.8-14.9%CV, respectively. Accuracy and precision of High QC samples of irinotecan were deviated. Our analysis procedure has sufficient sensitivity and is convenient enough for regular monitoring.