Cell kinetics of human solid tumours
By J. Hamish E. Laing, BSc, FRCS, *David A. Rew, MChir, FRCS and George D. Wilson, BSc, PhD
The study of human tumour cell proliferation using in vivo administration of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) and flow cytometry (FCM) has been studied at the Gray Laboratory and Mount Vernon Hospital since 1985 (Begg et al, 1985; Wilson et al, 1985, 1988; McNally & (Begg et al, 1983; Wison 1991 Wilson & Wilson, 1989; McNally, 1989; Wilson, 1991; Wilson & McNally, 1992). During this period over 570 patients have been studied, with a variety of solid neoplasms including head and neck, oesophagus, lung, rectal, cervix, uterus, testicular and breast carcinomas and sarcomas, lymphomas and melanomas. These studies have shed new light on the proliferative characteristics of human tumours both by the numbers that have been studied in vivo and the cell kinetic parameters that can be generated. Until this technique was developed, studies on human tumours were restricted mainly to in vitro investigations in which only the labelling index (LI) could be assessed. The aim of these studies is to provide new biological information and to apply the measurements as a predictive test for therapy.
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