5.1 Pharmacokinetics
Pharmacokinetics of CPT varies among individuals (Rivory and Robert, 1995; Rubin et al., 1995). When CPT is administered via intravenous drip infusion, the peak plasma concentration is attained just after the end of drug infusion and declines in a biexponential manner with a half-life of ~7.2 h (Venditto and Simanek, 2010). It is metabolized by carboxylesterase in the liver, and major excretion route is thought to be non-renal. Patients who received CPT experienced diarrhea in most cases (Rivory et al., 1996).