Patent ID: 8377636

Claim:
A method for treating tumors or tumor metastases in a patient, comprising the steps of: (a) diagnosing the patient's likely responsiveness to EGFR, PDGFR and FGFR kinase inhibitors comprising: (i) measuring the combined expression levels of keratin 8 and 18 in tumor cells of a tumor sample; (ii) measuring the expression level of the mesenchymal biomarker vimentin in said tumor cells of the tumor sample; and (iii) diagnosing the patient as having low sensitivity to EGFR kinase inhibitors and potential high sensitivity to PDGFR or FGFR kinase inhibitors when vimentin is expressed, and is expressed at a similar level to the combined expression levels of said keratins in said tumor cells; and (b) administering to said patient a therapeutically effective amount of a PDGFR or FGFR kinase inhibitor when low sensitivity to inhibition by EGFR kinase inhibitors and potential high sensitivity to PDGFR or FGFR kinase inhibitors is diagnosed for said patient.