There is increasing evidence that rapidly proliferating tumours, i.e. those with a high bromodeoxyuridine labelling index (BrdUrdLI), could benefit from an accelerated course of radiotherapy. Also, DNA ploidy may be a prognostic factor in term of patients survival. Thus, measurements of cell kinetics and DNA ploidy might become part of routine characterization of tumours before treatment. It is supposed, that a simple and cheap argyrophilic nucleolar organizer regions (AgNOR) test reflects the proliferative status of the tumour and correlates with BrdUrdLI. The BrdUrdLI, AgNOR test and DNA ploidy were assessed in 49 squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the cervix (stage II B-III B) and 5 normal epithelium. The number of NORs per cell nucleus, the mean AgNOR particle area and the total AgNOR area per cell were evaluated. Significant differences in the proliferative rate were found within the examined groups of tumours assessed by the BrdUrdLI and AgNOR test. The mean BrdUrdLI values were significantly lower in normal than in carcinomatous cells, while for AgNOR values this was true for stage III B only. The mean number of AgNORs and total AgNOR area per cell were not significantly higher at stage III B than at stage II B, respectively. A high DNA aneuploidy was found in the examined tumours: 78% in stage II B and 77% in stage III B of disease. The results of proliferative markers were not significantly different in diploid than in aneuploid tumours. A significant correlation (p < 0.0001) was found between the mean AgNOR values and BrdUrdLI, however the correlation coefficient was poor (r = 0.50). This was due to different fragments of the same tumours used in these tests. Therefore these techniques might be used as independent methods reflecting the proliferative rate of the tumour.