CELL KINETIC-ANALYSIS OF NON-HODGKINS-LYMPHOMAS USING IN-VIVO IODODEOXYURIDINE INCORPORATION AND FLOW-CYTOMETRY

The aim of this study was to analyse dynamic cell proliferation parame ters in non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Sixty-one patients with newly diagnos ed or with recurrent disease were given iododeoxyuridine (IdUrd) intra venously near 4 h prior to tumour biopsy. After staining with an IdUrd reactive antibody and propidium iodide, S-phase fraction (SPF), label ling index (LI), S-phase duration time (Ts) and potential tumour doubl ing time (Tpot) were determined by flow cytometry. Thirty-eight sample s, 15 low grade (LGM) and 23 high grade (HGM) malignant lymphomas, wer e possible to evaluate. Twenty-three cases were excluded due to aneupl oidy, insufficient amount of material or technical problems. Tpot valu es varied between 0.8-32.9 days (mean 7.0 days). HGM lymphomas had sho rter mean Tpot times than LGM lymphomas (4.8 versus 10.4 days, p=0.05) . For Ts the range was 4.2-20.1 h (mean 9.1 h), and a difference betwe en the two histological groups was demonstrated with a longer mean Ts for HGM compared with LGM cases (10.0 versus 7.8 h, p=0.04). Tpot show ed a negative correlation with SPF (P=0.003), and Ts demonstrated a po sitive correlation to SPF (p=0.02). The clinical significance of the d ynamic cell proliferation parameters studied remains to be clarified, but the interrelationships between Ts/SPF and Ts/morphologic subtype m ight be factors of interest for future prognostic studies in malignant lymphomas.