Novel short isoform of Annexin A10 at chromosome 4q, termed Annexin 10s (ANXA10s) and methods of use

A method of diagnosing a patient with or at risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma comprising:

• a) obtaining a biological sample from an individual suspected of having a heptocellular carcinoma;
• b) measuring the amount of ANXA10s in said biological sample;
• c) comparing said measured amount of ANXA10s to a control;
• and
• d) determining said patient has or is at risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma if said amount of ANXA10s is less in said patient sample than said control.

A method of diagnosing a patient with or at risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma comprising:

• a) obtaining a biological sample from an individual suspected of having heptocellular carcinoma;
• b) measuring an amount of each of ANXA10s, osteopontin (OPN) and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in said biological sample;
• c) comparing said measured amount of ANXA10s, osteopontin (OPN) and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) to a corresponding control ANXA10s value, a control osteopontin (OPN) value or a control alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) value;
• and
• d) determining said patient has or is at risk of developing hepatocellular carcinoma if
• i) said amount of ANXA10s is less in said patient sample than said control ANXA10s value,
• ii) said amount of osteopontin (OPN) is more abundant in said patient sample than said control osteopontin (OPN) value, and
• iii) said amount of alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) is significantly more abundant in said patient sample than said control alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) value.

A method of staging the progression of hepatocellular carcinoma comprising:

• a) obtaining a biological sample from an individual suspected of having hepatocellular carcinoma;
• b) measuring a level of gene expression of each of ANXA10s, osteopontin (OPN) and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) in said sample;
• c) comparing said levels of gene expression to a corresponding control ANXA10s value, a control osteopontin (OPN) value or a control alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) value;
• d) determining an expression profile indicative of said comparisons;
• and
• e) comparing said expression profile to a predetermined set of data corresponding to hepatocellular carcinoma tumor progression.

An assay for the staging of hepatocellular carcinoma comprising:

• a) a primer set able to hybridize under stringent conditions with a nucleic acid molecule according to SEQ ID NO:
• 1 or encoding an ANXA10s polypeptide;
• b) a primer set able to hybridize under stringent conditions with a nucleic acid molecule encoding osteopontin (OPN);
• c) a primer set able to hybridize under stringent conditions with a nucleic acid molecule encoding alpha-fetoprotein (AFP);
• and
• d) a control sample comprising nucleic acid molecules encoding ANXA10S, osteopontin (OPN), and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP);
• and
• e) a comparision means to compare values of ANXA10S, osteopontin (OPN), and alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) to tumor stage.