Carney triad

The Carney triad is a rare syndrome defined by the coexistence of three tumours:

• extra-adrenal paraganglioma (e.g. spinal paraganglioma)
  • initially, only functioning extra-adrenal paragangliomas were included, but subsequent work includes non-functioning extra-adrenal paragangliomas ¹
• gastric gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST)
• pulmonary chondroma

In most cases, only 2 of the 3 tumours are present at the time of diagnosis. It typically affects young people.

Terminology

It is not to be confused with the related Carney-Stratakis syndrome, or the unrelated Carney complex

History and etymology

First described by J Aidan Carney, an American professor of pathology, and colleagues in 1977 ⁵.