Usefulness of chromogranin A as a marker for detection of relapses of carcinoid tumours

It is well known that peptide-producing endocrine tumours cosecrete immunor eactive chromogranin A with their characteristic hormones. Into this study 187 patients with the diagnosis malignant carcinoids or other malignancies were entered. Using chromogranin A at a cut-off level of 30.3 U/ml it was p ossible to discriminate between patients in remission and patients sufferin g a relapse with a sensitivity of 91.7% and a specificity of 96.4 %, which may be of important diagnostic value. In our study that lasted over one yea r we could clearly show that the measurement of chromogranin A is impressiv ely superior to 5-hydroxyindoleacetic-acid for detecting a relapse of carci noids.