[Characteristics and pathological basis of tumor doubling time in lung cancer]

It is difficult to make a definite diagnosis of lung cancer only based on the morphological features. As the tumor doubling time is a good index of tumor growth, the diagnosis of lung cancer can be substantiated by measuring the tumor doubling time. Recently, the researches using high resolution CT (HRCT) or multi-detector row CT (MDCT) to calculate the tumor doubling time of lung cancer and the clinical applications have made some progress. In this paper, we reviewed the pathological basis and characteristics of tumor doubling time in lung cancer.