Patent ID: 8097469

Claim:
A method of identifying a non-small cell lung cancer patient as being likely to benefit from treatment with a drug targeting an epidermal growth factor receptor pathway by inhibiting tyrosine kinase or not likely to benefit from treatment with said drug, comprising the steps of: a) obtaining a mass spectrum from a blood-based sample from the patient; b) performing one or more predefined pre-processing steps on the mass spectrum obtained in step a); c) obtaining integrated intensity values of selected features in said spectrum at one or more predefined m/z ranges associated with differentiation between patients likely to benefit from the said drug and patients not likely to benefit from the said drug after the pre-processing steps on the mass spectrum in step b) have been performed; and d) using the values obtained in step c) in a classification algorithm using a training set comprising class-labeled spectra produced from blood-based samples from other patients to identify the patient as being either likely or not likely to benefit from the said drug wherein said one or more predefined m/z ranges comprise one or more m/z ranges selected from the group of m/z ranges consisting of: 5732 to 5795 5811 to 5875 6398 to 6469 11376 to 11515 11459 to 11599 11614 to 11756 11687 to 11831 11830 to 11976 12375 to 12529 23183 to 23525 23279 to 23622 65902 to 67502.