Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric assay for the multikinase inhibitor regorafenib in plasma

Regorafenib has recently been approved for the treatment of colorectal cancer. A bioanalytical liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometric assay for this multikinase inhibitor was developed and validated in plasma. The concentration range of the assay was 25-25,000 ng/mL. Protein precipitation with acetonitrile was used as sample pre-treatment with sorafenib as internal standard. The extract was diluted with methanol (25%, v/v) and then injected onto the sub-2 µm particle, bridged ethylsilicia hybrid trifunctional bonded C18 column. Isocratic elution using 0.02% (v/v) formic acid in a methanol-water mixture was used. Compounds were monitored by a triple quadrupole mass spectrometer in the selected reaction monitoring mode after positive electrospray ionization. Double logarithmic calibration was used; within-day precisions, between-day precisions, and accuracies were 3.2-9.2, 4.1-12.3 and 94.8-103.0%, respectively. High drug stability was observed under all relevant storage conditions. The assay was used to measure drug concentrations in a pharmacokinetic study in wild-type FVB mice.