A novel, rapid and sensitive isocratic liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) method was developed for quantification of docetaxel in human plasma with paclitaxel as internal standard. The high sensitivity and specificity of MS/MS detection enabled the use of a small volume of plasma (0.05 mL) and a simple liquid-liquid extraction procedure. Furthermore, a very short run-time (3 min) fulfilled the need for monitoring plasma levels of docetaxel from large-scale clinical studies. The calibration curve for docetaxel was linear over the range 5-1000 ng/mL with coefficients of correlation >0.999 using only 0.05 mL plasma. The intra- and inter-day precisions (CV) of analysis were <7%, and accuracy ranged from 96 to 110%. The applicability of the method was demonstrated in a pharmacokinetic study of a 1-h infusion of docetaxel with dosages of 75 mg/m(2). Possible conjugated metabolites of docetaxel were not detected in patients' samples.
Copyright 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.