US 7,247,426 B2 · Classifying cancers

Abstract

The overexpression of certain marker genes including Wnt5a has been found useful in the identification of more aggressive forms of malignant melanoma. Therefore, the overexpression of these genes in tumor samples of malignant melanoma may be useful in the diagnosis, profiling, and treatment of patients suffering from this disease. Inhibitors of Wnt5a activity may be useful in the treatment of aggressive forms of malignant melanoma. Inhibition of Wnt5a activity may be effected by any method including anti-sense therapy, gene therapy, and pharmaceutical intervention.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A method of diagnosing an aggressive form of malignant melanoma, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a test genetic sample from a test sample tumor;
measuring Wnt5a expression in the test genetic sample;
analyzing expression of Wnt5a by statistical methods, wherein the statistical methods comprise comparing increased expression of Wnt5a in the test genetic sample to the gene expression profile of Wnt5a from a cluster of pair-matched tumor samples,
wherein increased expression of Wnt5a in the test sample compared to Wnt5a expression in the cluster of pair-matched tumor samples having less than about 3.5% invasive ability indicates the second tumor is aggressive.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Classifying cancers

Life of this patent

Classifying cancers

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims8