Estimation of volume doubling time and cell loss in an experimental rat glioma model in vivo

We estimated the volume doubling time (Vd) of the ethyl-nitrosourea-induced rat glioma by serial magnetic resonance imaging, and the results were compared with potential doubling time (Tp) determined immunohistochemically. Vd ranged from 3.3 to 29.2 days (11.3 +/- 7.74) and Tp ranged from 2.3 to 13.3 days (6.81 +/- 3.33). Each tumour showed a wide range of bromodeoxyuridine (BUdR) labelling indices (LI), however, Vd and Tp correlated well with BUdR-LI. Vd was estimated as 17.6 x BUdR-LI-0.63 (R = -0.76, P < 0.001, n = 13) and Tp was estimated as 22.6 x BUdR-LI-1.02 (R = -0.92, P < 0.0001, n = 12). In addition, we compared the apoptotic indices (AI), determined by terminal deoxynucleotidyltransferase (Tdt)-mediated biotinylated dUTP-biotin nick-end labelling (TUNEL) techniques, with BUdR-LI and mitoses indices (MI). The results were: AI = 0.23 + 0.25Ln(BUdR-LI) (R = 0.971, n = 8, P < 0.0001) and AI = 1.05 + 0.29Ln(MI) (R = 0.937, n = 8, P < 0.001). Cell loss factors (CLF) also correlated well with BUdR-LI and MI. However, CLF calculated from Tp and Vd were lower than the values previously presumed, probably because of shorter Vd than true doubling time for tumour cell population. These results suggest that even malignant tumours retain a mechanism of adjusting their growth at least partly.