Pharmacokinetics of fluorouracil in humans.

A high-pressure liquid chromatography method has been used to investigate the pharmacokinetics of fluorouracil after single i.v. doses to patients. The method is simple and is specific for fluorouracil. No interference was observed in fluorouracil determinations due to other administered medication. Plasma levels of fluorouracil declined rapidly after dosing. The mean half-life was 11.4 min, and drug was essentially cleared from plasma in 1 hr. Individual differences in plasma fluorouracil levels, and also in derived pharmacokinetic constants, were considerably less than those reported previously.