Skip to main content
Log in

Pharmacokinetics of high-dose melphalan in children and adults

  • Original Articles
  • Melphalan, Pharmacokinetics
  • Published:
Cancer Chemotherapy and Pharmacology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Summary

Melphalan pharmacokinetics were studied in 20 children with stage IV neuroblastomas or Ewing's sarcomas and in 10 adults with AML, ALL, or small cell lung carcinomas, after IV administration of high doses (140 mg/m2 with furosemide-induced diuresis and 180 mg/m2 without induced diuresis) and high fluid intake (3000 ml/m2/day).

Unchanged melphalan was assayed in plasma and cereorospinal fluid by means of a high-performance liquid chromatographic procedure. The elimination half-life (t1/280 min) allows autologous bone marrow transplantation 24 h after the drug administration. In some children we were able to detect melphalan in cerebrospinal fluid samples.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Alberts DS, Chang SY, Chen HSG, et al (1979) Kinetics of intravenous melphalan. Clin Pharmacol Ther 26:73

    Google Scholar 

  2. Alexanian R, Bergsagel DE, Migliore PJ, et al (1968) Melphalan therapy for plasma cell myeloma. Blood 31:1

    Google Scholar 

  3. Bosanquet AG, Gilby ED (1982) Pharmacokinetics of oral and intravenous melphalan during routine treatment of multiple myeloma. Eur J Cancer Clin Oncol 18:355

    Google Scholar 

  4. Chang SY, Alberts DS, Farquhar D, et al (1978a) Hydrolysis and protein binding of melphalan. J Pharm Sci 67:682

    Google Scholar 

  5. Chang SY, Alberts DS, Melnick LR, et al (1978b) High-pressure liquid chromatographic analysis of melphalan in plasma. J Pharm Sci 67:679

    Google Scholar 

  6. D'Argenio DZ, Schumitzky A (1979) A program package for simulation and parameter estimation in pharmacokinetic systems. Comput Programs Biomed 9:115

    Google Scholar 

  7. Davis TP, Peng YM, Goodman GC, Alberts DS (1982) HPLC, MS and pharmacokinetics of melphalan, bisantrene and 13-cis-retinoic acid. J Chromatogr Sci 20:511

    Google Scholar 

  8. Egan CM, Jones CR, McCluskey M (1981) Method for the measurement of melphalan in biological samples by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. J Chromatogr 224:338

    Google Scholar 

  9. Furner RL, Mellet LB, Brown RK, Duncan G (1976) A method for the measurement of L-phenylalanine mustard in the mouse and the dog by high-pressure liquid chromatography. Drug Metab Dispos 4:577

    Google Scholar 

  10. Gouyette A (1983) Pharmacokinetics: statistical moment calculations. Arzneimittelforsch 33:173

    Google Scholar 

  11. Hedley DW, McElwain TJ, Millar JL, Gordon MY (1978) Acceleration of bone-marrow recovery by pretreatment with cyclophosphamide in patients receiving high-dose melphalan. Lancet II:966

    Google Scholar 

  12. Lazarus HM, Herzig RH, Graham-Pole J, et al (1983) Intensive melphalan chemotherapy and cryopreserved autologous bone marrow transplantation for the treatment of refractory cancer. J Clin Oncol 1:359

    Google Scholar 

  13. McElwain TJ, Hedley DW, Gordon MY, et al. (1979) High-dose melphalan and non-cryopreserved autologous bone marrow treatment of malignant melanoma and neuroblastoma. Exp Hematol 7 [suppl 5]:360

    Google Scholar 

  14. Niskanen E (1983) Preservation of human granulopoietic precursors following storage in the non-frozen state. Transplantation 36:341

    Google Scholar 

  15. Pallante SL, Fenselau C, Mennel RG, et al (1980) Quantitation by gas chromatography-chemical ionization-mass spectrometry of phenylalanine mustard in plasma of patients. Cancer Res 40:2268

    Google Scholar 

  16. Smith JP, Rutledge F (1975) Advances in chemotherapy for gynecologic cancer. Cancer 36:669

    Google Scholar 

  17. Taha IAK, Ahmad RA, Rogers DW, et al (1983) Pharmacokinetics of melphalan in children following high-dose intravenous injection. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol 10:212

    Google Scholar 

  18. Tattersall MHN, Jarman M, Newlands ES, et al (1978) Pharmacokinetics of melphalan following oral or intravenous administration in patients with malignant disease. Eur J Cancer 14:503

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gouyette, A., Hartmann, O. & Pico, JL. Pharmacokinetics of high-dose melphalan in children and adults. Cancer Chemother. Pharmacol. 16, 184–189 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00256174

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00256174

Keywords

Navigation