Patent ID: 9222136
Filing Date: 2015-12-29
Classification: A61P,C12Q

Abstract:
1. A method for determining if a thyroid tumor in a human subject is malignant, comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining a sample from the subject; (b) determining in the sample from the subject the amount of human TERT (telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT)) mRNA that lacks the β sequence and the amount of hTERT mRNA in the sample that comprises the β sequence using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), wherein the quantitative real time PCR utilizes nested primers and wherein the nested primers comprise SEQ ID NO:9 and SEQ ID NO:10; and (c) identifying the tumor as malignant if the hTERT mRNA in the sample that comprises the β sequence comprises at least 55% of hTERT mRNA in the sample and identifying the tumor as not malignant if the hTERT mRNA that lacks the β sequence comprises at least 55% of hTERT mRNA in the sample.