Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry method for the analysis of the anti-cancer agent capecitabine and its nucleoside metabolites in human plasma

A reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography method with electrospray ionization and mass spectral detection is described for the determination of capecitabine, 5′-deoxy-5-fluorocytidine and 5′-deoxy-5-fluorouridine in human plasma with 5-chloro-2′-deoxyuridine as the internal standard. An on-line sample clean-up procedure allows dilution of the plasma sample with the initial mobile phase. The linear dynamic range is 0.0500–10.0 μg/ml for capecitabine, and 0.0500–25.0 μg/ml for the metabolites, 5′-deoxy-5-fluorocytidine and 5′-deoxy-5-fluorouridine, respectively. This method has been used to analyze plasma samples from patients receiving capecitabine in combination with oxaliplatin.