Evaluation of a Capillary Microsampling Device for Analyzing Plasma Lenvatinib Concentration in Patients With Hepatocellular Carcinoma
Saito et al.
The finding, in our words
Capillary microsampling yielded plasma lenvatinib concentrations that were not significantly different from conventional venous samples in eleven hepatocellular carcinoma patients, with drug stability maintained at 85–115% of initial values for five days at ambient or refrigerated temperature. This validates decentralised therapeutic drug monitoring of lenvatinib, enabling patient-centric blood collection at home.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In AML and CLL, 91% of VAMS venetoclax results fell within 20% of plasma after individualised haematocrit correction; in home sampling, 18 of 21 patients self-sampled independently and 76% of returned samples were analysable, which shows home microsampling is workable, though the authors ask for multicentre validation.
Levens et al., Clinical Pharmacokinetics (paywalled) · source ↗
The True Dose TD-EPI kit demonstrated strong analytical agreement with venous blood for epirubicin monitoring, and the capillary samples remained stable for 72 hours at ambient temperature.
The study found volumetric absorptive microsampling showed high agreement between capillary and venous concentrations, with 94% of dasatinib and 95% of imatinib samples meeting the 20% acceptance criterion. VAMS is viable for imatinib monitoring and may allow longitudinal follow-up for dasatinib; however, VAMS results for imatinib, but not dasatinib, could be converted to plasma concentrations using prior ratios.
Verougstraete et al., Therapeutic drug monitoring (paywalled) · source ↗
This study established conversion methods for estimating plasma concentrations from whole blood VAMS samples for seven out of ten oral anticancer drugs, finding good agreement between capillary and venous samples. Patients reported a positive experience with home sampling using this microsampling technique.
Meertens et al., Therapeutic drug monitoring · source ↗
A 2025 review maps 28 microsampling devices, from dried spots and volumetric absorptive tips to upper-arm liquid capillary collectors, and names what a laboratory must control before their results are used: the haematocrit effect in non-volumetric dried samples, interstitial fluid from finger milking, volume, haemolysis and transport stability. Regulators on both sides of the Atlantic ask for the same two things, a device the patient can use safely and a sample fit for the test.