Tumor cell proliferation kinetics and tumor growth rate.

The present knowledge on the growth rate and the proliferation kinetics of human tumor is based on the measurement of the tumor doubling times (DT) in several hundred patients and on the determination of the proportion of proliferating cells with radioactive thymidine or by flow cytometry in large numbers of patients. The results show that the DT of human tumor varies widely, from less than one week to over one year with a median value of approximately 2 months. The DTs are significantly correlated with the histological type. They depend upon 1) the duration of the cell cycle whose mean duration is 2 days with small variations from tumor to tumor, 2) the proportion of proliferating cells and consequently the cell birth rate which varies widely among tumors and which is significantly correlated to the DT, 3) the cell loss factors which also vary widely and which are the greatest when proliferation is most intensive. These studies have several clinical implications: a) they have further increased our understanding of the natural history of human tumor, b) they have therapeutic implications since tumor responsiveness and curability by radiation and drugs are strongly influenced by the cell kinetic parameters of the tumor, c) the proportion of proliferating cells is of great prognostic value in several types of human cancers. The investigation of the molecular defects, which are correlated with the perturbation of control of cell proliferation, should lead to significant fundamental and therapeutic advances.