Pyrotinb has been approved for the treatment of HER2-positive advanced or metastatic breast cancer in China. However, the plasma concentration of pyrotinb in different patients varies greatly, and in the course of treatment, if patients have intolerable adverse reactions, the drug dosage will be reduced or even stopped. This study set out to establish an ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS) for the determination of pyrotinb in human plasma, analyze the population pharmacokinetics (PPK) of pyrotinib and assess the influence of patient variables on PK of pyrotinib in patients with HER2 positive breast cancer.
An UPLC-MS/MS method was developed to measure pyrotinib in human plasma. Utilizing a gradient elution procedure and a Kinetex C18 column (2.1 mm × 100 mm, 1.7 μm), sample separation was accomplished in 5.5 min. Pyrotinb extraction via protein precipitation was used as a sample pre-treatment technique. In total, 50 patients provided 158 plasma samples, which were identified and used in the PPK investigation. The non-linear mixed-effects modeling (NONMEM) approach was used to assess the plasma concentrations and covariates information. For the final PPK model evaluation, external evaluation, non-parametric bootstrap, visual predictive check (VPC), and goodness-of-fit (GOF) were used.
The UPLC-MS/MS method for determining plasma concentration of pyrotinib in patients had good selectivity and linearity in the range of 1–1,000 ng/mL. Pyrotinib concentration profile in HER2-positive breast cancer patients was well described by a single-compartment PPK model with first-order absorption and elimination. The formulas for the final estimated values of overall parameters of CL/F and Vd/F and Ka are respectively:
In this study, an UPLC-MS/MS method was established to determine the concentration of pyrotinib in human plasma. A population pharmacokinetic model of pyrotinib in HER2 positive breast cancer patients suggested that low serum total protein reduced the clearance rate of pyrotinib in patients. Clinical medical staff should pay attention to the liver function of patients with abnormal serum total protein and be alert to the occurrence of adverse drug reactions.