Permeability testing of glove materials for use with cancer chemotherapy drugs

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of several types of hospital gloves that are recommended by the manufacturers for handling chemotherapy drugs. Gloves were examined for permeability against five cancer chemotherapy drugs (doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, 5-fluorouracil, carmustine, and cisplatin) at several time points up to 2 h using a bacterial mutation assay as the measure of permeation. Of the 5 types of gloves tested at a single thickness, 4 were completely impermeable to all drugs and the remaining 1 demonstrated only limited permeability. A latex examination glove used for comparison was permeable to carmustine. One glove material that was tested as a double thickness was impermeable to the 5 drugs. Results indicate that various types of gloves may offer protection against exposure to chemotherapy drugs for healthcare workers.