Cell-kinetic characteristics of human brain tumors.

The proliferative potential of human brain tumors was investigated, in vivo, using bromodeoxyuridine (BUDR) incorporation and flow cytometry (FCM). Patients with a variety of human brain tumors were preoperatively injected with 250 mg of BUDR intravenously. The cell cycle parameters of most of the specimen were measured within 24 h of sampling. The results show that this method is very practical, fast, and feasible for determining the cell-kinetic parameters of human brain tumors. In this study important kinetic parameters such as the duration of S-phase and the potential doubling time of each tumor were calculated in some samples. Our results show a significant difference in labelling index between meningiomas and gliomas. No difference between benign and anaplastic meningiomas was demonstrated in this limited number of cases. The correlation between the labelling index and the clinical and radiological follow-up of each patient should make the assessment of the prognostic significance of the kinetic evaluation, possible. This method could be a useful aid in the selection of new treatment schedules.