Cancer Treatment Reports December 1976 [antikvár]

Introduction The purpose of this conference is to bring together the clinician, the experimentalist, and the mathematician in order to focus on the role of cell kinetics in cancer chemotherapy. Cell kinetics represents many things to many people. At the outset, it might be worthwhile to establish what we mean by cell kinetics. Some think of cell kinetics as the measurement of the durations of the phases of the cell cycle. Others consider cell kinetics to be synonymous with certain techniques, such as tritiated thymidine studies or stem cell assay studies. I would like to suggest that we consider cell kinetics not as a set of measurements and not as a technique or group of techniques, but as a scientific field which concerns itself with the quantitative aspects of the growth behavior of proliferating cell populations and their responses to perturbation by chemical and physical agents. Given this definition, I think we would agree that the field of cell kinetics should, and undoubtedly will, play an important role in the development of a rational, scientifically grounded approach to cancer therapy. We know that there are kinetic differences between human tumor cell populations and critical normal host tissues. It is not too much to hope that some day we will learn to exploit these differences therapeutically in a systematic fashion. The problems involved are formidable ones both on conceptual and technical grounds, and the search for their solution must always be associated with ongoing patient care of the highest standards. It would seem that there is much to be gained from developing strong interdisciplinary ties among clinicians, experimentalists, and mathematicians in order to mount an integrated effort to achieve the goal of cancer therapy optimization. Stanley E. Shackney