Methods of diagnosing and treating patients with cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma

A method for treating a patient with a cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (cSCC) tumor, the method comprising:

• (a) obtaining a diagnosis identifying a risk of metastasis in a cSCC tumor sample from the patient, wherein the diagnosis was obtained by:
• (1) determining the expression level of 20 genes in a gene set;
• wherein the 20 genes in the gene set are:
• ALOX12, BBC3, BHLHB9, GTPBP2, HDDC3, ID2, LCE2B, LOC100287896, MMP10, MSANTD4, NFASC, NFIC, PDPN, RCHY1, RPP38, RUNX3, TAF6L, TFAP2B, ZNF48, and ZNF496;
• (2) comparing the expression levels of the 20 genes in the gene set from the cSCC tumor sample to the expression levels of the 20 genes in the gene set from a predictive training set to generate a probability score of the risk of metastasis;
• (3) providing an indication as to whether the cSCC tumor has a low risk to a high risk of metastasis based on the probability score generated in step (2);
• and
• (4) identifying that the cSCC tumor has a high risk of metastasis based on the probability score and diagnosing the cSCC tumor as having a high risk of metastasis;
• and
• (b) administering to the patient an aggressive treatment when the determination is made in the affirmative that the patient has a cSCC tumor with a high risk of metastasis.