Anastrozole, an aromatase inhibitor drug, is used for the treatment of breast cancer in pre- and postmenopausal women. Anastrozole's incorporation into nanoparticulate carriers would enhance its therapeutic performance. To perceive the exact loaded amount of drug in nanocarriers, a valid analytical method is required. The reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography (RP-HPLC) method was developed and validated by using the C18 column, 150 × 4.6 mm, 5 µm particle size, in isocratic mobile phase composed of 50:50 V/V (volume/volume) acetonitrile-phosphate buffer (pH 3) flowing at a rate of 1.0 mL/min, and a diode array detector (DAD) set at λmax = 215 nm. The validation parameters such as linearity, accuracy, specificity, precision, and robustness have proven the accuracy of the method, with the relative standard deviation percentage (% RSD) values < 2. The limit of detection of the method was found equal to 0.0150 µg/mL, and the limit of quantitation was 0.0607 µg/mL. The percent recovery of sample was in the range of 98.04-99.25%. The method has the advantage of being rapid with a drug retention time of 2.767 min, specific in terms of resolution of peaks void of interference with any of the excipients, and high reproducibility. This makes it highly applicable for quality control purposes.
Keywords: HPLC; anastrozole; breast cancer; polymer–lipid hybrid nanoparticles; validation.