Transport properties of aqueous solutions of the oncologic drug 5-fluorouracil: a fundamental complement to therapeutics

Abstract Cancer pharmacology is often markedly toxic and must be precisely dosed in order to reach the therapeutic bioavailability under strict control. Transport properties are important tools in the process of interpretation and fine-tuning pharmaceutical applications, notably for drugs that have a long record of use and have met their limits of bioavailability. 5–Fluorouracil (5-FU) is one of the most used antineoplastic agents since its discovery in 1957. In this paper, binary mutual diffusion coefficients of 5-fluorouracil, obtained from a Taylor dispersion method setup are reported for aqueous solutions up to 75 mmol.kg−1. These data were complemented by viscosity measurements. The overall information allows to compute descriptive parameters and further interpretation on the basis of well-established models.