A general approach to the analysis of cellular life cycle traverse patterns is described. This approach is exemplified in human lymphomas, using Coulter volume and DNA content measurements obtained by flow cytometry. Among the B-cell tumors the large-cell lymphomas generally show larger fractions of DNA-synthesizing cells and a higher degree of proliferative activity than the small B-cell lymphomas. Paired cell-by-cell measurements of Coulter volume and DNA content can be used to distinguish large aneuploid tumor cells from smaller diploid cells in mixed cell populations. The paired measurements can also be used to explore the kinetic properties of subpopulations within individual tumor samples. It can be shown that within individual lymphoma samples there are subpopulations of large cells that have greater proliferative activity than the small cells.