Use of PM-2 DNA degradation as a pharmacokinetic assay for bleomycin.

The PM-2 DNA fluorescence assay has been shown to be a rapid, sensitive, and reproducible assay for bleomycin biochemical activity. The assay can detect bleomycin in human serum in the nmol range. The method measures DNA degradative activity of bleomycin and could be used to determine activity of bleomycin analogs and metabolites. The usefulness of the assay to perform bleomycin pharmacokinetic studies in cancer patients has been demonstrated. Linear regression analyses of parallel bleomycin assays with the radioimmunoassay gave a coefficient of correlation of 0.98 to 0.78 with trichloroacetic acid-treated serum. These results indicate excellent agreement between the two assays.