Widespread malignant disease with carcinoma of the lung, stomach, colon, breast, prostate and pancreas, Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and lymphosarcoma will give rise to high levels of CRP resulting from tissue damage by invading tumour cells. CRP, therefore may be used to monitor malignancy. The CRP-level increases dramatically following microbial infections, and this may be particularly helpful for the diagnosis and monitoring of bacterial septicemia in neonates and other immunocompromised patients at risk. In children, CRP is useful for differential diagnosis of bacterial and viral meningitis.
Because the biological half-life of this protein is only 24 hours, CRP accurately parallels the activity of the inflammation process and the CRP concentration decreases much faster than ESR or any other acute phase parameter, which is particularly useful in monitoring appropriate treatment of bacterial diseases with antibiotics.