Endogenous retroviruses up-regulated in prostate cancer
AssigneeNovartis Vaccines and Diagnostics, Inc.
InventorsPablo D. Garcia, Stephen F. Hardy, Jaime Escobedo, Lewis T. Williams
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Human endogenous retroviruses of the HML-2 family show up-regulated expression in prostate tumors. This finding can be used in prostate cancer screening, diagnosis and therapy.
Claims15
1-76. (canceled)
A method of screening for early stage prostate cancer, the method comprising a step of assaying, in a patient sample, an expression product of a human endogenous MMTV-like subgroup 2 (HML-2) retrovirus, wherein an increased level of said expression product of at least 150% relative to a control sample level of expression from cells that are not prostate tumor cells indicates that the patient should undergo further testing for the presence of prostate cancer, wherein the patient sample is a prostate or blood sample, wherein the expression product is an RNA comprising a Gag or Pol encoding sequence of the retrovirus, and wherein the HML-2 retrovirus is HERV-K(CH).
(canceled)
85-113. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.