Patent ID: 6344322
Filing Date: 2002-02-05
Classification: C12Q

Abstract:
A method to aid in detecting the presence of tumor cells in a patient, comprising the steps of:determining the presence of a single basepair mutation in a mitochondrial genome of a cell sample of a patient, wherein the mutation is found in a tumor of the patient but not in normal tissue of the patient; wherein the mutation is selected from the group consisting of a Tâ†’C substitution at position 710 according to SEQ ID NO: 1, a Tâ†’C substitution at position 1738 according to SEQ ID NO: 1, a Tâ†’C substitution at position 3308 according to SEQ ID NO: 1 a Gâ†’A substitution at position 8009 according to SEQ ID NO: 1, a Gâ†’A substitution at position 14985 according to SEQ ID NO: 1, a Tâ†’C substitution at position 15572 according to SEQ ID NO: 1, a Gâ†’A substitution at position 9949 according to SEQ ID NO: 1, a Tâ†’C substitution at position 10563 according to SEQ ID NO: 1, a Gâ†’A substitution at position 6264 according to SEQ ID NO: 1, an A insertion at position 12418 according to SEQ ID NO: 1, a Tâ†’C substitution at position 1967 according to SEQ ID NO: 1, and a Tâ†’A substitution at position 2299 according to SEQ ID NO: 1; and identifying the patient as having a tumor if one or more single basepair mutations are determined in the mitochondrial genome of the cell sample of the patient.