[Headache as "sentinel" symptom in personnel involved in the preparation and administration of antineoplastic drugs].

The increased prevalence of neoplastic diseases observed over the last years has resulted for in more frequent operations of preparation and administration of antiblastic drugs performed by the medical personnel. In this study, we examined a group of subjects involved in the preparation of ACNU, Methotrexate, Novantrone, Vincristine, Cyclophosphamide, Carboplatinum, Mythoxantrone, in order to elucidate whether headache may represent an early symptom of exposure to these products. At the same time, we measured the degree of pollution in the air surrounding the vertical laminar flow aspiration cabinet used for drug preparation. The 66.6% of the 12 subjects studied, 9 females and 3 males, complained of headache. However, the environmental detection using high performance liquid chromatography coupled with triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (HPLC/MS/MS) gave negative results with respect to a possible environmental damage. These findings suggest that headache is the onset symptom of the toxic effect of antiblastic chemiotherapics in the medical personnel involved in drug preparation and administration.