Morphometric estimation of growth of cell nuclei from plane section

In biological histology, cell size is measured from two-dimensional cell sections. The profile radii are recorded as a histogram. The estimation of real size distribution from the profile radius is Wicksell's corpuscle problem. Several approximate solutions of the integral equations have been discussed in the field of stereology. Cell size distribution can be used in the differential diagnosis between normal cells and malignant cells. In this study, we considered the estimation of cell growth rate from cell nuclei size distribution by methods analogous to those applied to life time analysis. The performance of estimates was investigated using a simulation study. Comparisons of performance between the estimates obtained for the profile radius and that for the radius obtained by estimated real size distribution are also made.