Reversed-phase liquid chromatographic determination of plasma levels of adriamycin and adriamycinol.

A method is given for the determination of adriamycin and its main metabolite, adriamycinol in plasma from cancer patients after administration of adriamycin as the free drug or as a complex with DNA. Adriamycin and adriamycinol are extracted in a column from 1 ml of plasma (pH 8.6) using a mixture of chloroform--1-heptanol (8:2). After re-extraction into phosphate buffer pH 2.2, the separation is performed as reversed-phase liquid chromatography on a LiChrosorb RP-2 (5 micron) column with a mobile phase of acetonitrile-water, acidified with phosphoric acid. The precision by quantitation with photometric detection was better than 5% within the range 50-300 ng/ml. Plasma levels of adriamycin and adriamycinol in a cancer patient are presented in this paper.