Intercapillary distance in the proliferating area of human glioma.

Tissues from 22 patients with glioma and 7 patients with normal white matter were used in this study. First we determined the proliferating area in the tumor tissue by evaluating the growth fraction (GF). Second we determined the mean number of cells and measured the intercapillary distance in a modified tumor cord in the proliferating area by using the texture analyzing system and Voronoi's method. Average GFs of tumor cells and tumor endothelial cells were 27.7 +/- 5.3% (SD) and 36.8 +/- 8.1% in many malignant gliomas and 6.5 +/- 3.1% and 17.0 +/- 11.9% in many benign gliomas. The mean number of cells within a tumor cord was 15.9 +/- 6.4 in the proliferating areas of all gliomas and 22.3 +/- 6.8 in the control group. The mean intercapillary distances were 77.8 +/- 15.9 micron in the proliferating area of all gliomas and 123 +/- 4.2 micron in the control group. There were significant differences in the number of cells and the intercapillary distances between the proliferating group and the control group (t value; P less than 0.05--less than 0.001). It has been suggested that GF is high in glioma cells and tumor endothelial cells in malignant gliomas and that GF of endothelial cells is always greater than that of the tumor cells. It is suggested that it is possible to use Voronoi's method for the interpretation of biological action in human gliomas.