Proliferation indices in malignant lymphomas.

In view of the importance of adjusting therapy to prognostic groups in malignant lymphomas, there have been numerous attempts over the past two decades to assess proliferation rates in these neoplasms. The techniques employed include radiolabelled thymidine uptake, DNA flow cytometry, the application of antibodies to proliferation-associated antigens and the enumeration of nucleolar organizer regions. The evolution of these methods is reviewed and their usefulness is evaluated.