- 1Catalan
Institute for Water Research (ICRA), H2O Building, Scientific and
Technological Park of the University of Girona, Emili Grahit 101, 17003
Girona, Spain; Tracer Technology department, Oil and Gas section,
Institute for Energy Technology (IFE), P.O. box 40, NO-2027 Kjeller, Norway. Electronic address: laurafc@ife.no.
- 2Norwegian Institute for Water Research (NIVA), Gaustadalléen 21, NO-0349 Oslo, Norway.
- 3Catalan
Institute for Water Research (ICRA), H2O Building, Scientific and
Technological Park of the University of Girona, Emili Grahit 101, 17003
Girona, Spain.
- 4Catalan Institute for Water Research
(ICRA), H2O Building, Scientific and Technological Park of the
University of Girona, Emili Grahit 101, 17003 Girona, Spain; Water and
Soil Quality Research Group, Department of Environmental Chemistry,
IDAEA-CSIC, Jordi Girona 18-26, 08034 Barcelona, Spain.
Abstract
The
administration of anticancer drugs during chemotherapy treatments has
increased considerably in recent years, and based on the growing
incidence of cancer worldwide there is a foreseen increase in their use
over the coming years. Many anticancer drugs are not removed by
conventional wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) and can therefore reach
the aquatic environment and potentially threaten aquatic life. The
objective of this work was to apply a suspect screening methodology to
detect chemotherapy and radiotherapy drugs and their related compounds
such metabolites and/or biomarkers in wastewater. The use of logical
pre-determined criteria to refine the suspect list down to a relatively
small number of relevant compounds greatly improved the efficiency of
the analysis. Mass accuracy, isotopic patterns and predicted retention
time were used to tentatively identify the suspects. Successful
identification of cancer-related suspects included two antineoplastic
hormones, two X-ray contrast agents and a pyrrolizidine alkaloid related
to an herbal
medicine. This is the first time that a suspect screening paradigm has
been successfully applied to the identification of pharmaceuticals and
biomarkers related to chemotherapy in wastewater.
Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
KEYWORDS:
Suspect
screening; biomarkers; chemotherapy drugs; liquid chromatography
coupled to high resolution mass spectrometry; metabolites; retrospective
analysis
