Cell proliferation kinetics and radiation response in 9L tumor spheroids

Cell kinetic parameters, including population doubling-time, cell cycle time, and growth fraction, were measured in 9L gliosarcoma spheroids. These parameters were studied as the spheroids grew from 50 ..mu..m to over 900 ..mu..m in diameter. Experiments relating the cell kinetic parameters to the radiation response of 9L spheroids were also carried out. The major findings were that the average cell cycle time (T/sub c/), is considerably longer in large spheroids than in exponentially-growing monolayers, the radiosensitivity of noncycling (but still viable) cells in spheroids is not significantly different from that of cycling spheroid cells, and the radiation-induced division delay is approximately twice as long in spheroid cells as in monolayer cells given equal radiation doses. The cell loss factor for spheroids of various sizes was calculated, by using the measured kinetic parameters in the basic equations for growth of a cell population. 157 references, 6 figures, 3 tables