This project develops objective measurements of the biological malignancy of human cancers with the intention that clinicians shall have better information bases for planning treatment. There are several discrete goals: 1) To develop better methods for preparing histological material for pathological examination so that objective criteria may be applied, 2) To identify those properties of tumor material that have relevance to the biological behavior of cancer based on prospective and retrospective studies, 3) To study the mechanisms by which malignancy is manifested such as invasion and metastasis using both human tissues and isolated cell populations. The methods used in this study include stoichometric histochemistry, quantitative light microscopy, computerized image analysis, confocal laser microscopy, and computerized population register epidemiology.
