Cell kinetic analysis of human brain tumors by in situ double labelling with bromodeoxyuridine and iododeoxyuridine

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Abstract
Fifty‐seven patients with brain tumors (29 gliomas, 23 meningiomas, 5 miscellaneous) received infusions of intravenous iododeoxyuridine (IUdR) and bromodeoxyuridine (BUdR) 1–5 hr apart shortly before tumor removal. Excised tumor specimens were stained sequentially for BUdR and IUdR. The percentage of BUdR‐labelled cells was determined to establish the labelling index (LI), or S‐phase fraction, and the ratio of cells labelled only with IUdR to cells labelled with BUdR or with BUdR and lUdR was determined to calculate the duration of S‐phase (Ts) and the potential doubling time (Tp) of each tumor. The BUdR LIs varied from < 1% to 20%, reflecting the malignancy of each tumor. Despite the difference in LIs, however, Ts was fairly uniform (mean ± so, 8.7 ± 2.0 hr). Tp varied from 2 days to more than 1 month and correlated closely with the BUdR LIs (Tp = 23/LI0.93; r2 = 0.91). Double‐labelling studies with IUdR and BUdR allow the S‐phase fraction, Ts and Tp to be determined from a single biopsy specimen and thus provide more useful information on the growth characteristics of individual tumors than can be obtained by single‐labelling studies with BUdR.