Gkolfinopoulos S, Tsapakidis K, Papadimitriou K, Papamichael D, Kountourakis P. Chromogranin A as a valid marker in oncology: Clinical application or false hopes? World J Methodol 2017; 7(1): 9-15 [PMID: 28396845 DOI: 10.5662/wjm.v7.i1.9]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Panteleimon Kountourakis, MD, PhD, Department of Medical Oncology, BOC Oncology Center, 32 Acropoleos Ave, 2006 Strovolos, Nicosia, Cyprus. pantkount@gmail.com
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Minireviews
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Stavros Gkolfinopoulos, Demetris Papamichael, Panteleimon Kountourakis, Department of Medical Oncology, BOC Oncology Center, 2006 Strovolos, Nicosia, Cyprus
Konstantinos Tsapakidis, Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital of Larissa, 41110 Larissa, Greece
Konstantinos Papadimitriou, Department of Medical Oncology, University Hospital of Antwerp, 2610 Antwerp, Belgium
Author contributions: Gkolfinopoulos S performed the majority of the manuscript preparation; Tsapakidis K contributed to the manuscript preparation; Papadimitriou K contributed to the manuscript preparation; Papamichael D contributed to the manuscript preparation and revision; Kountourakis P contributed to conception, designed the study, coordinated manuscript preparation, prepared the revised version.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest on the part of any other authors on this study.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Panteleimon Kountourakis, MD, PhD, Department of Medical Oncology, BOC Oncology Center, 32 Acropoleos Ave, 2006 Strovolos, Nicosia, Cyprus. pantkount@gmail.com
Telephone: +357-22-847402 Fax: +357-22-511870
Received: October 16, 2016 Peer-review started: October 19, 2016 First decision: November 30, 2016 Revised: December 15, 2016 Accepted: January 2, 2017 Article in press: January 4, 2017 Published online: March 26, 2017
Abstract
Chromogranin A, due to its primary expression throughout the neuroendocrine system, is a widely accepted biomarker for the assessment of neuro-endocrine tumors. It has been traditionally used in the management of patients with tumors of gastro-enteropancreatic origin. Lately, it has also been implicated in various conditions and diseases, both benign and malignant. However, the paucity of data of adequate strength, as well as its relation with common physiologic conditions and its interaction with commonly prescribed medications, limit its clinical use in only a narrow spectrum. Herein, we present a thorough review to the most frequent conditions where its levels are affected, focusing specifically on its potential use as a prognostic and predictive biomarker in oncology.
Core tip: In the era of targeted therapy, there is an unmet need for the development of more sensitive, specific and reliable biomarkers for early diagnosis, prognosis and detection of early recurrence to tumors which comprise an extremely heterogeneous group.
