Methods for the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer

Abstract

The present invention provides methods for aiding in the diagnoses of the neoplastic condition of a lung cell, and methods of screening for a potential therapeutic agent for the reversal of the neoplastic condition.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09 / 646,478, filed Mar. 4, 2002, which in turn, is a 371 of PCT / US99 / 06947, filed Mar. 30, 1999, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 080,044, filed Mar. 31, 1998, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference into the present disclosure.TECHNICAL FIELD [0002] This invention is in the field of cancer biology. In particular, the present invention provides compositions and methods for diagnosing and treating a neoplastic lung cell characterized by an overexpression of a proto-oncogene. BACKGROUND [0003] Despite numerous advances in medical research, cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States. In the nations, roughly one in five persons will die of cancer. Traditional modes of clinical care, such as surgical resection, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, have a significant failure rate, especially for...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0008] Accordingly, one embodiment of this invention is a method of diagnosing the neoplastic condition of a lung cell by screening for the presence of an overexpressed proto-oncogene from a lung cell sample, in which the overexpression is indicative of the neoplastic state of the lung cell. In one aspect of this embodiment, the overexpressed proto-oncogene is b-myb or p67, and in another aspect, the overexpressed proto-oncogene is PGP9.5 or 8-oxo-dGTPase. The overexpression of the proto-oncogene embodied in the present invention is determined by detecting the quantity of mRNA transcribed from the proto-oncogene, or the quantity of cDNA produced from the reverse transcription of the mRNA, or the quantity of the polypeptide or protein encoded by the proto-oncogene. The methods are particularly useful for aiding in the diagnosis of non-small cell lung cancer.

[0009] Another embodiment of the invention is a

Problems solved by technology

Traditional modes of clinical care, such as surgical resection, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, have a significant failure rate, especially for solid tumors.

Failure occurs either because the initial tumor is unresponsive, or because of recurrence due to regrowth at the original site and / or metastases.

However, the vast variability in the nature of the disease has rendered the search for cellular markers, such as genes that are preferably overexpressed in primary lung cancer cells and useful for diagnostic and therapeutic methods, difficult.

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