Patent ID: 7655414

Claim:
A method of determining whether a biological sample comprising human lung cancer cells is sensitive to a combination of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) inhibitor erlotinib (N-(3-ethynylphenyl-6,7-bis(2-methoxyethoxy)quinazolin-4-amine) and a chemotherapeutic agent, the method comprising determining the overexpression of a phosphorylated AKT protein and a phosphorylated MAPK protein in the sample, wherein phosphorylated AKT protein (SEQ ID NO:6) is phosphorylated at an amino acid position corresponding to amino acid position 473 of the AKT1 protein and MAPK protein (SEQ ID NO:1) is phosphorylated at amino acid positions corresponding to amino acid positions 202 and 204 of MAPK1, wherein the overexpression of phosphorylated AKT protein and phosphorylated MAPK protein in the sample is determined by a) determining the level of expression of phosphorylated AKT protein and phosphorylated MAPK protein in the biological sample: b) determining the level of expression of phosphorylated AKT protein and phosphorylated MAPK protein in a second sample comprising human lung cancer cells that are not sensitive to a combination of epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor erlotinib and a chemotherapeutic agent; and c) determining the difference of the level of expression of phosphorylated AKT protein and phosphorylated MAPK protein determined in step a) and b) thereby determining the overexpression of phosphorylated AKT protein and phosphorylated MAPK protein; whereby the overexpression of the phosphorylated AKT protein and the phosphorylated MAPK protein is an indication that the biological sample comprising human lung cancer cells is sensitive to a combination of epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitor erlotinib and a chemotherapeutic agent.