Bioavailability of Etoposide after Oral Administration of the Solution Marketed for Intravenous Use: Therapeutic and Pharmacoeconomic Perspectives

Background toposide administration is a suitable alternative to the intravenous route; therefore, commercial capsules have been developed. Before these capsules were available in Mexico, we studied drug bioavailability after oral administration of the intravenous etoposide solution (IVES). s adult cancer patients received a 50-mg oral etoposide dose as IVES and blood samples were collected over a period of 24 h. Plasma etoposide concentration was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography, plasma concentration against time curves were constructed, and bioavailability parameters were calculated. s VES yielded an adequate bioavailability profile because Cmax was 2.38 ± 0.30 μg/mL, AUC was 12.87 ± 2.02 μg/mL and half-life was 6.72 ± 0.97 h. sions ering that the pharmacokinetic aim is to maintain plasma concentrations between 0.5 and 1.0 μg/mL for several hours while avoiding high concentrations, i.e., of 10 μg/mL or higher, oral administration of 50-mg etoposide as IVES appears to be a suitable dosing option. In addition, oral IVES is considerably less expensive than intravenous administration in terms of both drug presentation and administration.