Patent ID: 8592169

Claim:
A method of detecting or diagnosing cancer in a patient in need of detection or diagnosis of cancer, comprising: contacting a bodily fluid sample from the patient in need of detection or diagnosis of cancer with an immunoassay reagent and detecting a presence of complexes formed by specific binding of the immunoassay reagent to any cancer-associated anti-tumor autoantibodies present in the sample, wherein the immunoassay reagent comprises a panel of two or more tumor marker proteins, one or more of which having been prepared from a tumor-induced bodily fluid produced in a body cavity or space in the presence of the tumor of one or more cancer patients, wherein the bodily fluid contains more cancer-associated forms of the tumor marker protein than a non-tumor-induced bodily fluid in the same patient, and the bodily fluid is not a fluid derived from the systemic circulation, wherein at least one of the two or more tumor marker proteins is MUC1, MUC16, c-myc, c-erbB2, p53, ras, BRCA1, BRCA2, APC, PSA, CEA or CA19.9, or a fragment thereof, wherein the two or more tumor marker proteins are two or more different tumor marker proteins or are two or more different epitopes on the same tumor marker protein, wherein the one or more tumor marker proteins prepared from a bodily fluid exhibit selective reactivity with cancer-associated anti-tumor autoantibodies, wherein the tumor marker proteins are over-expressed or altered forms of wild-type proteins, wherein detection of complexes indicates the presence of cancer-associated anti-tumor autoantibodies in the individual, and wherein detection of the presence of an elevated level of the anti-tumor autoantibodies in the sample, as compared to a sample from a normal control, indicates that the patient in need of detection or diagnosis of cancer has or is developing a cancer.