Nonlinear pharmacokinetics of cyclophosphamide in patients with metastatic breast cancer receiving high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous bone marrow transplantation.

The pharmacokinetics of cyclophosphamide has been evaluated in 15 patients with metastatic breast cancer undergoing high-dose chemotherapy with alkylating agents followed by autologous bone marrow transplantation. Each patient received two courses of chemotherapy: 4 g/m2 of cyclophosphamide by 90-min infusion prior to peripheral blood progenitor cell collection (the first course) and 6 g/m2 of cyclophosphamide with 800 mg/m2 of thiotepa by 96-h constant infusion before marrow and stem cell reinjection (the second course). In the first course, plasma cyclophosphamide concentration-time data of 9 of 15 patients were fit by a one-compartment model with Michaelis-Menten saturable elimination in parallel with first-order renal elimination. The mean (SD) Vmax and K m values were 1.47 (0.89) µm/min and 575 (347) µm, respectively. The first course data of the remaining six patients were fit using first-order elimination only. In the second drug course, plasma cyclophosphamide disposition curves of 13 of 15 patients demonstrated a decline in concentration following attainment of an initial steady state. The plasma cyclophosphamide disposition data of these patients were fit by a one-compartment pharmacokinetic model, in which the decline of plasma cyclophosphamide concentration after reaching the initial steady state was modeled as being due to an increase in the clearance rate of cyclophosphamide. The mean (SD) initial and final clearance rates were 51 (16) ml/min and 106 (48) ml/min, respectively. Michaelis-Menten elimination was not apparent in the second course because the plasma concentration of cyclophosphamide was much lower. The mean renal clearance rate was 17 ml/min in the first course and 16 ml/min in the second course. Urinary excretion of cyclophosphamide accounted for 17% and 23% of the total dose administered in the first and the second course, respectively. No change in cyclophosphamide clearance rate was apparent in a patient who was taking phenytoin, but a change was present in a patient who was taking phenobarbital. A drug interaction between cyclophosphamide and thiotepa may explain the smaller initial clearance rate for cyclophosphamide during the second drug course.