Patent ID: 7932032

Claim:
A method for detecting identifying, or predicting the presence of esophageal cancer comprising determining in vitro the expression level of at least an esophageal cancer-associated target nucleic acid consisting of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO:142 in a biological sample obtained from the esophagus of a human subject using a composition, kit or chip comprising: (a) a polynucleotide consisting of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 142, a nucleotide sequence having at least 95% sequence identity with SEQ ID NO: 142, or a fragment of SEQ ID NO: 142 comprising at least 15 contiguous nucleotides of SEQ ID NO:142; (b) a polynucleotide comprising the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 142; (c) a polynucleotide consisting of a nucleotide sequence that is a full-length complement of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 142, a nucleotide sequence having at least 95% sequence identity with the full-length complement of SEQ ID NO: 142, or a fragment thereof comprising at least 15 contiguous nucleotides of the full-length complement of SEQ ID NO: 142; or (d) a polynucleotide comprising a nucleotide sequence that is a full-length complement of the nucleotide sequence of SEQ ID NO: 142, wherein the determination of the expression level is compared to the expression level value obtained from a control sample and a decrease in the expression level of SEQ ID NO:142 in the biological sample detects, identifies or predicts the presence of esophageal cancer.