Patent ID: 8288102

Claim:
A method for detecting the presence of an echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4)â€”anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) fusion molecule in a biological sample from a human subject, said method comprising: performing a PCR amplification reaction with polynucleotides from said sample, wherein said polynucleotides comprise an EML4-ALK fusion polynucleotide, wherein said amplification reaction utilizes a pair of primers which will amplify at least a fragment of said EML4-ALK fusion polynucleotide, said fragment comprising the fusion junction, wherein the first primer is in sense orientation and the second primer is in antisense orientation, and wherein said EML4-ALK fusion polynucleotide encodes an EML4-ALK fusion polypeptide which comprises an amino acid sequence having at least 95% identity with an amino acid sequence comprising residues 1-222 or 1-495 of SEQ ID NO: 3 and residues 1116-1383 of SEQ ID NO: 5, and detecting an amplification product, wherein the presence of the amplification product is indicative of the presence of an EML4-ALK fusion molecule in the biological sample.