HIGH-PERFORMANCE LIQUID-CHROMATOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF DOXORUBICIN AND ITS METABOLITES IN CANINE URINE

Doxorubicin(a) is an anthracycline antibiotic commonly used in the tre atment of solid tumors and malignant lymphoma. Doxorubicin is cleared rapidly from the plasma and eliminated into the urine and feces as the parent drug and its metabolites. The authors assessed potential risk of doxorubicin exposure to veterinary medical professionals by measuri ng the amount of unmetabolized doxorubicin present in the urine of 10 dogs that received intravenous doxorubicin chemotherapy. Drug excreted into the feces was not measured. Using a high-performance liquid chro matographic (HPLC) assay, doxorubicin was detected in the urine of the se dogs for up to five days after a single intravenous bolus. Total do xorubicin (parent drug and metabolites) recovered from the urine over this period represented 3.13% of the dose administered. A substantial portion of the doxorubicin (53%) was unmetabolized drug. The authors s trongly recommend avoiding practices that may cause urine aerosolizati on and using latex gloves when contacting urine-contaminated surfaces, because dogs do not urinate in a closed waste disposal system as do h umans.