Back to results
US 2002/0164622 A1Published application
Subtle mitochondrial mutations as tumor markers
AssigneeThe Johns Hopkins University
InventorsKornelia Polyak, Bert Vogelstein, Kenneth W. Kinzler
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The accumulation of homoplasmic somatic mutations has been observed in the mitochondrial DNA of certain tumor cells. The presence or recurrence of a tumor can be detected by determining the presence of single basepair mutations in the mitochondrial genome from a cell sample of a patient.
Claims31
A method to aid in detecting the presence of tumor cells in a patient, comprising:
- step for determining the presence of a single basepair mutation in a mitochondrial genome of a cell sample of a patient, wherein the mutation is found in a tumor of the patient but not in normal tissue of the patient;
- and
- identifying the patient as having a tumor if one or more single basepair mutations are determined in the mitochondrial genome of the cell sample of the patient.
The method of claim I wherein the single basepair mutation is a G~A substitution at position 8009.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.