T. Arai et al., TUMOR DOUBLING TIME AND PROGNOSIS IN LUNG-CANCER PATIENTS - EVALUATION FROM CHEST FILMS AND CLINICAL FOLLOW-UP-STUDY, Japanese Journal of Clinical Oncology, 24(4), 1994, pp. 199-204
A study was made of the relation between tumor doubling time and progn
osis in lung cancer patients. Tumor doubling time was calculated in 23
7 patients from two serial chest x-ray films. The mean doubling time w
as 166.3 days, with 221.6 days for adenocarcinoma, 115.2 days for squa
mous cell carcinoma, 67.5 days for large cell carcinoma, 86.3 days for
small cell carcinoma and 225.2 days for others. The patients were div
ided into three groups in a log-normal distribution of tumor doubling
times 109.6 and 252.4 days. The patients with a doubling time of less
than 109.6 days were classified as 'rapid growing', those with a doubl
ing time of more than 252.4 days as 'slow growing' and those with a do
ubling time in between as 'intermediate growing'. The five-year surviv
al rates were 23.3% for 81 'rapid growing' patients, 36.7% for 81 'int
ermediate growing' patients and 43.3% for 75 'slow growing' patients,
with statistically significant differences between groups 'rapid growi
ng' and 'intermediate growing' of P<0.05 and between groups 'rapid gro
wing' and 'slow growing' of P<0.01. The five-year survival curves for
those who underwent curable resections were 42.4% for 36 rapid growing
patients, 53.7% for 31 'intermediate growing' patients and 70.1% for
43 'slow growing' patients. The difference between rapidly growing and
slowly growing tumors was statistically significant (P<0.05). Patient
s with the more rapidly growing tumors showed a tendency to have a poo
rer prognosis. It was confirmed that the doubling time of a tumor is a
n independent factor in the prognosis of lung cancer patients.