Method for assessing progression of clinical state of malignant neoplasm by quantitative detection of DNA in blood

Abstract

The object of the invention is to provide a method for quantitatively assessing the degree of progression of a malignant neoplasm in a patient who has been medicated. Provided is a method for assessing the progression of the clinical state of a malignant neoplasm in a subject who has been administered with a medicine for treating the malignant neoplasm, the method being characterized by comprising: (1) a step of determining the ratio of DNA molecules having an activation mutation that serves as an activation marker for the medicine to DNA molecules having a normal marker gene in DNA in the blood from the subject; (2) a step of determining the ratio of DNA molecules having a resistance mutation that serves as a resistance marker for the medicine to DNA molecules having a normal marker gene in the DNA in the blood from the subject; and (3) a step of comparing a value obtained in the step (2) with a value obtained in the step (1) to thereby assess whether or not the malignant neoplasm in the subject has acquired resistance to the treatment with the medicine.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.