Patent ID: 8586380

Claim:
A method of facilitating treatment of a head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cancer (HNSCC) patient, comprising the steps of: 1) assigning a baseline class label for the patient using a classifier operating on integrated intensity values at pre-defined m/z ranges in mass-spectral data obtained from a blood-based sample of the patient and a training set comprising class-labeled spectra from other patients, the baseline class label indicating whether the patient is likely to benefit from administration of a drug targeting an epidermal growth factor receptor pathway by inhibiting tyrosine kinase or interfering with EGFR, wherein if the baseline class label indicates the patent is likely to benefit, the drug is administered to the patient; and 2) thereafter, while the patient is being treated with the drug, a) obtaining a mass spectrum of a blood-based sample of the patient, b) performing one or more predefined pre-processing steps on the mass spectrum, c) obtaining integrated intensity values of selected features in said spectrum at said one or more pre-defined m/z ranges after the pre-processing steps on the mass spectrum have been performed, and d) assigning a further class label for the sample using the classifier and the training set, the further class label indicating whether the patient has developed a non-responsiveness to the treatment with the said drug.