Pharmacokinetic study of vinorelbine in Chinese patients with non-small-cell lung cancer by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with fluorescence detection

To investigate the pharmacokinetics of vinorelbine in Chinese subjects with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC), a high-performance liquid chromatographic method using fluorescence detection was established to determine the concentrations of vinorelbine in human blood and plasma. Samples were collected from 10 Chinese patients with NSCLC after intravenous infusion of 40 mg vinorelbine. Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using 3P87 software. The pharmacokinetics of vinorelbine in Chinese patients fitted a two-compartment model. The pharmacokinetic parameters calculated from plasma and blood drug concentrations were: AUC (530.99 ± 88.56) ng·ml–1·h and (904.91 ± 194.97) ng·ml–1·h, Cmax(861.78 ± 247.25) ng·ml–1 and (1,053.85 ± 295.98) ng·ml–1, and t1/2β (33.70 ± 1.58) h and (40.40 ± 21.30) h, respectively. The pharmacokinetic profiles of vinorelbine in Chinese NSCLC patients were similar to those reported for non-Chinese NSCLC patients.   Key words: Vinorelbine, plasma drug concentration, blood drug concentration, pharmacokinetics, high-performance liquid chromatography.