FPSE-HPLC-DAD method for the quantification of anticancer drugs in human whole blood, plasma, and urine

The present work describes a fast, sensitive and selective procedure for the analyses of aromatase inhibitors including anastrozole, letrozole and exemestane used in the treatment of metastatic breast cancer by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in human whole blood, plasma, and urine samples succeeding an extraction by innovative fabric phase sorptive extraction (FPSE). These drugs were successfully determined using a Luna C₁₈ column at 25 °C using acetonitrile and phosphate buffer. The analytical method was validated, using weighted-matrix matched standard calibration curves. The intra- and inter-day accuracy values (precision and trueness) fulfill the criteria of International Guidelines on Bioanalytical Methods Validation. The analytical performances were further tested on real human biological samples. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first FPSE procedure applied to human whole blood, plasma, and urine samples for the concurrent analysis of aromatase inhibitors possessing a wide range of polarity index values and could be easily adopted as a rapid and green analytical protocol for clinical and pharmaceutical applications. The proposed HPLC method is very innovative since in the literature there are only methods dealing with a single antitumoral drug, and no process has been described so far for these three antitumoral drugs together directly from the whole blood.