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Circulating Biomarkers: Biological Basis, Methods, and Interpretation Criteria

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Atlas of Thyroid and Neuroendocrine Tumor Markers

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Abstract

Blood-based biomarkers are valuable tools for the diagnosis, estimation of prognosis, and monitoring of therapy responsiveness and disease course in patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). Prior to their clinical use, the methodical and quality soundness of biomarker assays, robustness against potentially influencing preanalytical factors, and their utility for the clinical question of interest have to be investigated thoroughly. In gastroenteropancreatic NETs, chromogranin A (CgA) has proven to be the most informative monoanalyte, while in lung NETs progastrin-related peptide (ProGRP) and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) provide the best diagnostic performance and are valuable for disease monitoring. New approaches include multimarker analysis such as the 51 gene-based NETest that shows an excellent sensitivity and specificity profile for the detection of gastroenteropancreatic NETs and may improve the biomarker-based diagnostic in the future.

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Conflict of Interest Statement

The author declares to have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Laboratory Medicine, German Heart Center Munich, Clinic at the Technical University Munich, Munich, Germany

    Stefan Holdenrieder M.D.

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  1. Stefan Holdenrieder M.D.
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Correspondence to Stefan Holdenrieder M.D. .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Nuclear Medicine and Thyroid Centre, Oncology Institute of Southern Switzerland, Bellinzona, Switzerland

    Luca Giovanella

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Holdenrieder, S. (2018). Circulating Biomarkers: Biological Basis, Methods, and Interpretation Criteria. In: Giovanella, L. (eds) Atlas of Thyroid and Neuroendocrine Tumor Markers. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62506-5_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62506-5_3

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-62505-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-62506-5

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