Tumour volume doubling time
How long a tumour takes to double in volume, measured from two scans; it separates cancers from benign nodules in lung screening, sorts aggressive from indolent disease and estimates how long a tumour has been present.
Overview
Collins and colleagues introduced volume doubling time from serial chest radiographs in 1956. In lung cancer screening it is the main tool for managing indeterminate nodules: the NELSON trial used volume doubling time to classify growth, with faster than 400 days prompting work-up, and it underlies the British Thoracic Society and Lung-RADS pathways. Doubling time also grades kidney masses under surveillance, thyroid nodules and metastases, and, projected backwards, suggests that most cancers have grown for years before detection. Growth is Gompertzian rather than exponential, so a single doubling time is an approximation.
How it works
Doubling time = t·ln2 / ln(V2/V1) for volumes V1 and V2 measured t days apart, assuming exponential growth over the interval.
- Simple and used in screening pathways
- Separates aggressive from indolent lesions
- Applies to any imaged tumour
- Assumes exponential growth
- Measurement error dominates for small nodules
- Growth rates change over time
Latest papers
topQuery for this technology: (TITLE:"Tumour volume doubling time" OR ABSTRACT:"Tumour volume doubling time") AND (cancer OR tumor OR tumour OR oncology OR carcinoma OR lymphoma OR leukemia OR leukaemia OR myeloma OR sarcoma OR melanoma OR glioma). Results are unfiltered search hits about Tumour volume doubling time, not a curated reading list.
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