Estimation of Imatinib by Modern Analytical Techniques: A Review

ABSTRACTThe introduction of imatinib, an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor, as first-line standard therapy in patients with unresectable, metastatic, or recurrent gastro-intestinal stromal tumor (GIST), strongly improved their treatment outcomes. A fast and cheap method was developed and validated using high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry for quantification of imatinib in human serum and tamsulosin as the internal standard. Remarkable advantages of the method includes use of serum instead of plasma, less time spent on processing and analysis, simpler procedures, and requiring reduced amounts of biological material, solvents, and reagents. LC-MS, HPLC and UV Spectrophotometry validated methods have proved to be linear, accurate, precise, and robust, it is suitable for pharmacokinetic assays, such as bioavailability and bioequivalence, and is being successfully applied in routine therapeutic drug monitoring in the hospital service Keywords: Imatinib, LC-MS, HPLC, UV Spectrophotometry.