This method was successfully applied to assaying nilotinib in human plasma samples from patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia. In addition, we compared the results with those measured by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) at BML, Inc. (a commercial laboratory). A strong correlation was observed between the nilotinib concentrations measured by our high-performance liquid chromatographic method and those obtained by LC/MS-MS (r = 0.988, P < 0.01).