Bioanalytical methods for cytostatic therapeutic drug monitoring and occupational exposure assessment

Chemotherapy is the use of chemical substances to treat cancer. However, traditional chemotherapeutic agents do not show sufficient specificity for the cancer cells, which means that also healthy cells are strongly affected by these treatments. In parallel, manufacturers and health-care workers are continuously exposed to these cytostatic drugs through the usual procedures. Thus, there is a need to control the real internal dose received by this sector. Bioanalytical techniques may show great potential as tools for establishing a more personalized treatment procedure since therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) could support clinicians on making and establishing decisions adapted to each patient. Similarly, these bioanalytical procedures may be implemented on those occupational sectors in which risk for exposure to these hazardous drugs exists. In this review, we present the overall situation in that respect and provide information of the bioanalytical techniques reported up to date for the most important cytostatic families. © 2017 Elsevier B.V.The Nb4D group (formerly Applied Molecular Receptors group, AMRg) is a consolidated research group (Grup de Recerca) of the Generalitat de Catalunya and has support from the Departament d'Universitats, Recerca i Societat de la Informació de la Generalitat de Catalunya (expedient: 2014 SGR 1484). CIBER-BBN is an initiative funded by the Spanish National Plan for Scientific and Technical Research and Innovation 2013–2016, Iniciativa Ingenio 2010, Consolider Program, CIBER Actions are financed by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III with assistance from the European Regional Development Fund. This work was performed as part of a research contract with CETEMMSA Technological Center (part of the EURECAT Technology Center of Catalonia). Marta Broto wishes to thank the FPI-fellowship (BES-2013-062819) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness.Peer reviewe