Simple and sensitive liquid chromatographic quantitative analysis of the novel marine anticancer drug Yondelis (ET-743, trabectedin) in human plasma using column switching and tandem mass spectrometric detection.

The development of a simple and sensitive assay for the quantitative analysis of the marine anticancer agent Yondelis (ET-743, trabectedin) in human plasma using liquid chromatography (LC) with column switching and tandem mass spectrometric (MS/MS) detection is described. After protein precipitation with methanol, diluted extracts were injected on to a small LC column (10 x 3.0 mm i.d.) for on-line concentration and further clean-up of the sample. Next, the analyte and deuterated internal standard were back-flushed on to an analytical column for separation and subsequent detection in an API 2000 triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer. The lower limit of quantitation was 0.05 ng mL(-1) using 100 micro l of plasma with a linear dynamic range up to 2.5 ng ml(-1). Validation of the method was performed according to the most recent FDA guidelines for bioanalytical method validation. The time needed for off-line sample preparation has been reduced 10-fold compared with an existing LC/MS/MS method for ET-743 in human plasma, employing a labor-intensive solid-phase extraction procedure for sample pretreatment. The proposed column switching method was successfully applied in phase II clinical trials with Yondelis and pharmacokinetic monitoring. Copyright 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.