Monitoring pharmacokinetics of anticancer drugs: non-invasive investigation using magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) offers the unique advantage of detecting, identifying and quantifying chemicals deep within the living body in a totally non-invasive manner. In studies on pharmacology and toxicology of anticancer drugs, MRS and the closely related technique magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have many uses. MRS in particular, despite its low sensitivity, offers unique insights into pharmacokinetics (the changing concentration of the drug at its site of action) which can be monitored, and metabolism (both activation and detoxification) can be detected in real time. This review considers some recent work on 19F, 31P, 1H and 13C MRS of anticancer drugs. Future possibilities for 13C MRS and 1H MRS studies of drugs and their metabolites are considered in detail.