Mehrara Esmaeil, Forssell-Aronsson Eva
Department of Radiation Physics, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Cancer Center, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Göteborg SE - 413 45, Sweden.
Theor Biol Med Model. 2014 May 20;11:21. doi: 10.1186/1742-4682-11-21.
Inter-patient variations in tumour growth rate are usually interpreted as biological heterogeneity among patients due to, e.g., genetic variability. However, these variations might be a result of non-exponential, e.g. the Gompertzian, tumour growth kinetics. The aim was to study if the natural tumour growth deceleration, i.e. non-exponential growth, is a dominant factor in such variations.
The correlation between specific growth rate (SGR) and the logarithm of tumour volume, Ln(V), was calculated for tumours in patients with meningioma, hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic carcinoma, primary lung cancer, post-chemotherapy regrowth of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), and in nude mice transplanted with human midgut carcinoid GOT1, a tumour group which is biologically more homogeneous than patient groups.
The correlation between SGR and Ln(V) was statistically significant for meningioma, post-chemotherapy regrowth of NSCLC, and the mouse model, but not for any other patient groups or subgroups, based on differentiation and clinical stage.
This method can be used to evaluate the homogeneity of tumour growth kinetics among patients. Homogeneity of post-chemotherapy regrowth pattern of NSCLC suggests that, in contrast to untreated tumours, the remaining resistant cells or stem cells (if exist) might have similar biological characteristics among these patients.
患者间肿瘤生长速率的差异通常被解释为患者之间的生物学异质性,例如由于基因变异性。然而,这些差异可能是非指数型肿瘤生长动力学的结果,例如Gompertzian生长动力学。目的是研究自然肿瘤生长减速,即非指数型生长,是否是这种差异的主导因素。
计算了脑膜瘤、肝细胞癌、胰腺癌、原发性肺癌患者肿瘤的特定生长速率(SGR)与肿瘤体积对数Ln(V)之间的相关性,以及非小细胞肺癌(NSCLC)化疗后再生长情况,还计算了移植人小肠类癌GOT1的裸鼠肿瘤的相关性,该肿瘤组在生物学上比患者组更具同质性。
基于分化和临床分期,SGR与Ln(V)之间的相关性在脑膜瘤、NSCLC化疗后再生长情况以及小鼠模型中具有统计学意义,但在任何其他患者组或亚组中均无统计学意义。
该方法可用于评估患者间肿瘤生长动力学的同质性。NSCLC化疗后再生长模式的同质性表明,与未治疗的肿瘤相比,这些患者中剩余的耐药细胞或干细胞(如果存在)可能具有相似的生物学特征。