A review on various analytical methods for determination of anthracyclines and their metabolites as anti-cancer chemotherapy drugs in different matrices over the last four decades

Anthracyclines (ANT), belong to a group of antineoplastic drugs, are commonly used as chemotherapeutic agents in the treatment of various cancers. During the past decade, the number of cancer patients receiving ANT-based chemotherapy drugs has significantly increased. Generally, ANT are very cytotoxic agents and are known to be accompanied by several unpleasant adverse effects. Therefore, the development of a reliable, accurate and sensitive analytical method is necessary and important to analyze ANT in human biomonitoring. The objective of this review is to provide a summary of various analytical methods (spectroscopic, liquid chromatographic and electroanalytical) that have been reported during the last four decades for the analysis of the five most commonly used ANT, daunorubicin (DNR), doxorubicin (DOX), epirubicin (EPI), idarubicin (IDA), valrubicin (VAL) and their metabolites, alone or in combination with other drugs, in various matrices such as biological matrices, environmental samples and pharmaceutical formulations. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.