Analysis of 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine and 5-fluorouracil in human plasma and urine by high-performance liquid chromatography.

A relatively simple and sensitive high-performance liquid chromatographic (HPLC) method is described for measuring the two anticancer drugs 5'-deoxy-5-fluorouridine (5'dFUR) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) in human plasma and urine. The procedure for plasma includes solvent extraction using ethyl acetate-isopropyl alcohol (85:15) followed by silica gel column chromatography to separate these compounds from constituents normally occurring in plasma. The analysis by reversed-phase HPLC is performed on a phenyl column using an aqueous mobile phase with ultraviolet detection (280 nm). The overall recovery from plasma was 61% and 65% for 5'dFUR and 5-FU, respectively. The sensitivity limit of the assay for both compounds was 50 ng/ml of plasma. Analysis of these compounds in urine did not require the silica column chromatography isolation step.