Tumour growth

Tumour growth depends on the
1) imbalance between cell gain and cell loss. This imbalance is determined by the
2) growth fraction, which is the proportion of cells within a tumour that are in the proliferative phase. The growth fraction has a huge impact on treatment options for neoplasia.

Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy are more efficient when the cells are in the proliferative phase. Thus, tumours with high growth fractions are more susceptible to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

What happens to tumours that have low growth fraction (i.e.: breast cancer, colon cancer etc)?

We need to shift the tumour cells from G0 phase to cell cycle phase. This can be done by excising part of the tumour, thus the remaining cell sense the ‘loss’ and shift into cell proliferation mode. Now we can attack them with chemotherapy etc.

Category: Pathology Notes