US 2017/0283881 A1 · EARLY LUNG CANCER DETECTION BY DNA METHYLATION PHENOTYPING OF SPUTUM-DERIVED CELLS

Abstract

In certain embodiments, this application discloses methods for detecting lung cancer. The method includes characterization of cells extracted from human sputum, which is a valuable tissue surrogate and source of upper respiratory cells that become cancerous early in 5 the process of lung cancer development. The method includes the staining of extracted cells with fluorescent reporters that produce a specific pattern in the nuclei of labeled cells, which can be made visible by light microscopy. The pattern is relevant to a type of epigenetic coding of DNA known as DNA methylation, which changes in specific cells of the lung during cancer development, in comparison to normal respiratory cells.

Claims23

Dependent claims

A method for determining if a cell is cancerous or precancerous, comprising:

determining a global 5-methylcytosine (5mC) content and/or spatial nuclear co-distribution of 5mC and global DNA (gDNA) in a nucleus of the cell;
and
determining that the cell is cancerous or precancerous if the global 5mC content and/or spatial nuclear co-distribution of 5mC and gDNA in the nucleus of the cell is significantly different from a non-cancerous or non-precancerous reference cell and/or a non-cancerous or non-precancerous reference cell population, or determining that the cell is not cancerous or not precancerous if the global nuclear 5mC content and/or spatial nuclear co-distribution of 5mC and gDNA are not significantly different from those of a non-cancerous or non-precancerous reference cell and/or a non-cancerous or non-precancerous reference cell population.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Early lung cancer detection by dna methylation phenotyping of sputum-derived cells

Life of this patent

Early lung cancer detection by dna methylation phenotyping of sputum-derived cells

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims23