Patent ID: 8871438

Claim:
A method of diagnosing large intestinal cancer in a patient, comprising: a. obtaining a pattern of secondary ion mass (m/z) peaks using time of flight mass spectrometry (TOF-MS) for a biological sample comprising excrement or excremental liquid obtained from a patient; and b. determining the presence of an object pattern of secondary ion mass peaks of the biological samples of persons having large intestine cancer in the pattern of secondary ion mass peaks for the biological sample comprising excrement or excremental liquid obtained from the patient, the object pattern of secondary ion mass peaks of the biological samples of persons having large intestine cancer including a change in position of one or more secondary ion mass peaks, a change in intensity of one or more secondary ion mass peaks, extinction of one or more secondary ion mass peaks, generation of one or more secondary ion mass peaks, or a combination thereof for a disease pattern of secondary ion mass peaks of biological samples comprising excrement or excremental liquid of patients having a large intestine cancer as compared to at least one reference pattern of secondary ion mass peaks for biological samples comprising excrement or excremental liquid of persons not having large intestinal cancer; the presence of the object pattern of secondary ion mass peaks of the biological samples of persons having large intestine cancer in the pattern of secondary ion mass peaks for the biological sample comprising excrement or excremental liquid obtained from the patient indicating the presence of large intestinal cancer in the patient.