Accessible analytical methodology for assessing workplace contamination of antineoplastic drugs in limited-resource oncology health-care settings

Background: Environmental monitoring of workplaces where antineoplastic drugs are handled constitutes an essential tool to assess occupational exposures among health-care workers. Consequently, availability of simple, sensitive, and affordable analytical methodologies is needed, particularly in health-care settings with limited resources that restrict environmental monitoring studies. Methods: Previously validated methodologies for simultaneous determination of ifosfamide, cyclophosphamide, and paclitaxel were modified and re-validated in order to create a more sensitive and more accessible liquid chromatography-based analytical method for measuring levels of workplace contamination generated by the handling of antineoplastic drugs in oncology healthcare settings with limited resources. Results: An HPLC-UV methodology was developed and validated to simultaneously determine ifosfamide, cyclophosphamide, and paclitaxel in field wipe samples collected from oncology health-care settings with limited resources. Solid-phase extraction was incorporated to concentrate analytes and improve their detection and quantification. Adequate limits of detection for ifosfamide (0.02 ng/cm(2)), cyclophosphamide (0.1 ng/cm(2)), and paclitaxel (0.03 ng/cm(2)) were obtained. Also, mean recoveries between 88.7 and 96.2 % were achieved. Conclusions: The analytical method described here using a more widely available instrumentation provides an excellent alternative to LC-MS when establishing workplace contamination levels produced by the handling of antineoplastic drugs in non-high-income country oncology health-care settings.