Tumor Progression

The tumor doubling time is the period of time during which the volume of a tumor doubles. The tumor doubling time of a carcinoma, for example, is approximately 2-3 months and determines, among other things, the aggressiveness of the tumor. The doubling time is also decisive for the therapy strategy. The growth of a carcinoma to a diagnostically recognizable tumor size of 1 cm in diameter (approx. one billion cells) requires approx. 30-33 doublings, which corresponds to a period of about 8-9 years. The tumor doubling time varies greatly and is determined by the number of dividing cells (growth fraction) within the tumor. Tumors with a large growth fraction grow faster than tumors with a small number of dividing cells.