Abstract
Chloroacetaldehyde and thiodiglycolic acid, two metabolites of ifosfamide, interfere with mitochondrial function and may sequester carnitine. Urinary excretion of carnitine was measured in five patients before and during a continuous infusion of ifosfamide over 5 days at a dose of 2.8–3.2 g/m2 per day. The excretion of free and total carnitine increased from 85 ± 53 to 2697 ± 1393 μmol/day on the 1st day of chemotherapy and then gradually decreased. The average loss of carnitine during a chemotherapy cycle amounted to 8.5 mmol. The formation and excretion of esters of carnitine and metabolites of ifosfamide and/or a decreased renal tubular reabsorption could account for this marked loss, which might lead to symptomatic carnitine deficiency after several chemotherapy cycles.
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Received: 26 October 1998 / Accepted: 5 January 1999
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Marthaler, N., Visarius, T., Küpfer, A. et al. Increased urinary losses of carnitine during ifosfamide chemotherapy. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol 44, 170–172 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002800050963
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002800050963