Parameterization of in vivo leukemic cell populations.

A quantitative mathematical formalism which was previously introduced has been utilized to obtain the cell kinetic parameters which characterize the in vivo leukemic myeloblast cell populations in two patients studied by Clarkson and his coworkers. The principal tentative conclusions are: (a) all cells which are actively proliferating must enter the resting state following cell division; (b) about 90% of the cells are in the resting state; (c) the generation time of the cells in the active state is about 25 hr and is essentially the same as the generation time of normal myeloblast cells.