[Immunohistochemical and clinicopathological studies of chromogranin immunoreactive cells in large bowel carcinoma].
We examined the clinicopathological relevance of chromogranin immunoreactive cells in a well documented series of 212 large bowel cancer patients. Chromogranin immunoreactive cells were detected in 33.5% of the carcinomas, occurring either as rare cases (19.3%) or as diffuse cases (14.2%). The tumors with chromogranin immunoreactivity were associated with a more aggressive clinical course than tumors without immunoreactivity (Generalized-Wilcoxon; p less than 0.08). Moreover, the survival of patients with diffusely immunoreactive tumors was significantly shorter than that of patients without such cells (Generalized-Wilcoxon; p less than 0.009). Therefore, the study of chromogranin immunoreactivity in large bowel carcinomas may enable the identification of a subpopulation of colorectal carcinomas associated with a relatively poor prognosis.