Patent ID: 7425414

Claim:
A method of determining the likelihood of breast cancer metastasis, melanoma metastasis, or prostate cancer metastasis in a human individual comprising the steps of: a) providing a biological sample comprising a chromosomal preparation from the human individual; b) performing fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) on the chromosomal preparation using the probes bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) RP11-339B19, BAC RP11-677L6, and BAC RP11-665C13; and c) detecting a split FISH signal from said probes as indicative of a break in the sequence of human chromosome 12q24 at the SMRT gene locus, wherein the presence of said break is indicative that the individual has an increased likelihood of breast cancer metastasis, melanoma metastasis, or prostate cancer metastasis, should the individual have or develop breast cancer, melanoma, or prostate cancer.