QUANTITATION AND GOMPERTZIAN ANALYSIS OF TUMOR-GROWTH

Human tumor xenografts in immune-deficient animals are used to establi sh tumor growth curves and for studying the effect of experimental the rapy on tumor growth. In this review we describe a method for making s erial measurements of tumor size in the nude mouse model as well as me thods used to transform the experimental data into useful growth curve s. A transformed Gompertz function is used as the basis for calculatin g relevant parameters pertaining to tumor growth and response to thera py. The calculations are facilitated by use of a computer program whic h performs the necessary calculations and presents the growth data in graphic form.