Diagnosis and treatment of cancer

Abstract

A method of diagnosing cancer in a human patient comprising the steps of (i) obtaining a sample containing nucleic acid and/or protein from the patient; and (ii) determining whether the sample contains a level of hNeNa voltage-gated Na⁺ channel nucleic acid or protein associated with cancer. A method of treating cancer comprising the step of administering to the patient an agent which selectively prevents the function of hNe—Na voltage-gated Na⁺ channel. A genetic construct comprising a nucleic acid encoding a molecule capable of preventing the function of hNeNa voltage-gated Na⁺ channel expressed in a cell. The methods and compositions are particularly suited to prostate cancer.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to methods of determining whether a patient has cancer and whether the cancer is likely to metastasise; and it relates to methods of treating cancer, particularly prostate cancer. [0002] Cancer is a serious disease and a major killer. Although there have been advances in the diagnosis and treatment of certain cancers in recent years, there is still a need for improvements in diagnosis and treatment. [0003] Cancer is a genetic disease and in most cases involves mutations in one or more genes. There are believed to be around 60,000 genes in the human genome but only a handful of these genes have been shown to be involved in cancer. Although it is surmised that many more genes than have been presently identified will be found to be involved in cancer, progress in this area has remained slow despite the availability of molecular analytical techniques. This may be due to the varied structure and function of genes which have been identified to date whi...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, the pharmacological properties of the VGS currents in the rat MAT-LyLu cells were not consistent with those reported for this VGSCα.

However, the two extremes of this curve were unknown or undetermined for the SQT-PCR data (i.e. the initial mass of cDNA at zero cycles was unknown, and the final product mass at the end of the PCR undetermined).

Thus, a sigmoid curve could not be fitted to the data.

The specific PCRs for PN1, hNe—Na, RB2, HB2, hNa6 and HB3 produced multiple VGSCα products, due to alternative splicing, making determination of the VGSCαs' levels of expression more difficult.

However, unlike such methods, degenerate screens also yield quan

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