[Significance of the cell cycle for the effect of antineoplastic chemotherapy].

Cell proliferation is an essential premise for the cell-destroying action of antineoplastic chemotherapy. A survey is given on the growth behaviour of malignant neoplasms, on the cell cycle-dependent mode of action of antineoplastic chemotherapeutics as well as on the consequences of this cell kinetic knowledge for medical practice. Though research on cell kinetics of normal and tumor cell populations has yielded many useful data for the design of tumor therapy schedules in medical practice it is hitherto scarcely possible to improve selective treatment by means of cell kinetic parameters in the next future. Further investigations in normal (mainly bone marrow) and neoplastic cell populations concerning their sensitivity to cytostatic chemotherapy as well as deeper insights in molecular biological processes during the different phases of the cell cycle and subtle analyses of the growth behaviour of tumor stem cells are inevitable.