Patent ID: 7879620

Claim:
A laboratory test processing center, comprising: one or more data storage devices storing (a) class-labeled mass spectral data obtained from blood-based samples of a multitude of cancer patients, the class labels for the mass spectral data indicating whether or not a patient associated with the mass spectral data responded to treatment of cancer from administration of an epidermal growth factor receptor pathway targeting drug; and (b) a mass spectrum of a blood-based sample of a cancer patient to be tested; a processing unit operating in accordance with a set of instructions to perform the following operations on the mass spectrum of the blood-based sample of a patient to be tested and the class-labeled mass spectral data: (a) perform one or more predefined pre-processing steps on the mass spectrum of the blood-based sample of a patient to be tested; (b) obtain integrated intensity values of features in the mass spectrum of the blood-based sample of a patient to be tested at one or more predetermined m/z ranges in said mass spectrum after the performance of said predefined pre-processing steps; (c) implement a classification algorithm on the integrated intensity values and the class-labeled mass spectral data, the classification algorithm assigning a class label for the blood-based sample of a patient to be tested indicating whether or not the said patient is likely to benefit from administration of an epidermal growth factor receptor pathway targeting drug; and (d) output the class label assigned by the classification algorithm to the blood-based sample of a cancer patient to be tested; wherein the cancer patient is a non-small cell lung cancer patient, and wherein the class label assigned to the blood-based sample of cancer patient to be tested indicates wherein the patient is likely to benefit from administration of at least one of (a) gefitinib and (b) erlotinib.