Cell proliferation, tumour growth and clinical outcome: gains and losses in intestinal cancer - 18 Downloads
Cell proliferation, tumour growth and clinical outcome: gains and losses in intestinal cancer
David Anthony Rew MChir FRCs
Cell proliferation is a key feature of the biology of normal intestinal mucosa and of malignant tumours. There have been numerous studies of proliferative indices in human intestinal cancer, using techniques such as tritiated thymidine (3H-TdR) labelling of tissue sections, stathmokinetics, and flow cytometry (FCM) derived S phase fraction (SPF) measurements. Mitoses can be counted in conventionally stained tissue sections, but they identify only a small fraction of the cycling population. Endogenous cell markers of proliferation such as proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and Ki-67 have yet to prove their utility. With the exception of stathmokinetic studies, which measure the rate of accumulation of mitoses after metaphase arrest by agents such as colchicine (1), and are very laborious, none of these techniques can be used to estimate the rate of cell production in clinical tumours.
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