New techniques in the pharmacokinetic analysis of cancer drugs. II. The ultratrace determination of platinum in biological samples by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry.

The use of ICP-MS and its various sample introduction techniques has great potential in extending the time scale of study for the pharmacokinetics of platinum containing anti-tumour drugs. Electrothermal vaporization ICP-MS can be used to measure very small samples with very low concentrations. Speciation studies of platinum in tissues can be carried out with HPLC-ICP-MS over longer time periods. Finally, LA-ICP-MS is potentially useful for studying the spatial distribution of platinum in tissues and tumours.