Development and Validation of a Simple and Reliable HPLC-UV Method for Determining Gemcitabine Levels: Application in Pharmacokinetic Analysis

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Gemcitabine has been used to treat various solid cancers, including, since 1997, metastatic pancreatic cancer. Here, we developed an HPLC-UV method to determine serum gemcitabine levels and use it in pharmacokinetic studies. Materials and Methods: The analysis was performed after a single protein precipitation step on a reversed-phase column, isocratically eluted with sodium phosphate buffer and methanol. For the pharmacokinetic study, NOD/SCID mice received a single dose of gemcitabine at 100 mg/kg by either subcutaneous (SC) or intraperitoneal (IP) administration. Blood samples were collected at 5, 15, and 30 min and 1, 2, 4, and 6 h after the administration of gemcitabine for further analysis. Results: The duration of the analysis was ~12.5 min. The calibration curve was linear (r2 = 0.999) over the range of 1–400 μM. The mean recovery of GEM was 96.53% and the limit of detection was 0.166 μΜ. T1/2, Tmax, Cmax, AUC0–t, and clearance were 64.49 min, 5.00 min, 264.88 μmol/L, 9351.95 μmol/L*min, and 0.0103(mg)/(μmol/L)/min, respectively, for the SC administration. The corresponding values for the IP administration were 59.34 min, 5.00 min, 300.73 μmol/L, 8981.35 μmol/L*min and 0.0108(mg)/(μmol/L)/min (not statistically different from the SC administration). Conclusions: A simple, valid, sensitive, and inexpensive method for the measurement of gemcitabine in serum has been developed. This method may be useful for monitoring gemcitabine levels in cancer patients as part of therapeutic drug monitoring.