Introduction: During the reconstitution of a drug and during its storage, there are risks of interactions between the drug and the bag used for the preparation. Polyvinyl chloride is a material used in the manufacture of a large part of chemotherapy infusion bags. It is subject to many interactions like sorption of drugs and release of phthalate additives.
Material and methods: Seven anticancer drugs used in pediatric oncology were involved in our study. After reconstitution of the anticancer agents in polyvinyl chloride bags, the adsorption phenomenon between the container and the contents is evaluated by infrared spectroscopy by analyzing the inner surface of the polyvinyl chloride. Subsequently, for the anticancer agents which exhibited an adsorption-container-content, the analysis was carried out by ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry in order to examine the kinetics of the concentration of reconstituted anticancer drugs.
Results: All the polyvinyl chloride bags gave a spectrum identical to the spectrum of the reference bag, except the bags used to reconstitute etoposide whose spectra showed 12 additional peaks. With the absorbances measured by ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometry at different times, the analysis of variance statistical analysis shows that there is a significant difference in absorbances between t0 and all the other measurement times.
Conclusion: This study testifies to the existence of a container-content interaction between etoposide and polyvinyl chloride. Thus, reconstitution of etoposide for intravenous infusion into a polyvinyl chloride bag should be used immediately. For etoposide preparations intended for storage beyond 24 h, it is recommended to use a container other than the polyvinyl chloride bag.
Keywords: Adsorption; anticancer drugs; container–content interaction; etoposide; polyvinyl chloride.