Preliminary Observations on the Quantitative Examination of Human Biopsy Material taken from Irradiated Carcinomata

Abstract

1. A method is described by which the effects of radiation on malignant cells in vivo are measured quantitatively. The method has so far been applied in man only to squamous and basal cell carcinomata and observations have been restricted to the primary growth. 2. The method consists in counting the entire cell population of selected young areas in biopsies taken before and after irradiation and determining the number of cells in each of four categories, viz., dividing, degenerate, resting and differentiating cells. 3. By plotting the counts as percentages against time on a graph it has been found that the resulting curves of the cases so far studied show certain characteristics by which the effectiveness of the radiation can be judged and it is proposed now to test the method on a large scale. 4. If the results confirm the preliminary observations, the radiotherapist will be provided with a useful and fairly rapid method (analogous to the use of blood counts in blood diseases) for obtaining information concerning (a) the biological activity of an unirradiated tumour, (b) the response of the tumour to radiation, whether this takes the form of a “test” exposure or is part of the routine treatment, and (c) the efficiency of the radiation technique applied to the particular tumour under observation.