Patent ID: 8101349

Claim:
A method for assessing the risk that a human patient has colon cancer comprising: a) determining a level of a nucleic acid and a level of at least one molecular marker gene in a patient sample comprising human colon cells, said nucleic acid comprising the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 23702; b) comparing said level of the nucleic acid in (a) to a control level of the nucleic acid; and c) comparing said level of the at least one molecular marker gene in (a) to a control level of the at least one molecular marker gene; wherein at least a two-fold increase between the level of the nucleic acid in (a) and the control level of the nucleic acid, and a change in levels of expression between the level of the at least one molecular marker gene in (a) and the control level of the at least one molecular marker gene indicate that there is an increased risk that the patient has colon cancer.