A simple and sensitive validated HPLC method for quantitative determination of cisplatin in human plasma

Cisplatin is an anti-tumor agent widely employed in cancer chemotherapy. A specific and selective method for the quantitative determination of cisplatin in human plasma and its applications to pharmacokinetic investigations is described. One simple ethanol-induced protein precipitation step followed by simple liquid–liquid extraction with chloroform is the only requirement as sample treatment. The resulting solution is injected into a Wakosil II (5 μm, 250 cm × 4.6 mm I.D.) analytical column. The mobile phase consisted of methanol:water:acetonitrile (40:30:30 v/v/v). The limit of quantitation was 1 μg/mL. The method showed good recovery (93.95%) and within batch recovery was 91.59–97.00%. At all levels intra- and inter-assay precision was lower than 7 and 10%, respectively. The intra- and inter-assay accuracy ranged from −2.7 to 2% and from −3.1 to 4.0%, respectively. The selectivity (discrimination between the parent drug and platinum containing species such as cisplatin metabolites), simplicity and speed of this assay for free cisplatin quantitation should facilitate pharmacokinetic investigations and therapeutic drug monitoring.