Patent ID: 8663929

Claim:
An in-vitro immunoassay method for detecting the presence of liver cancer cells in a subject, comprising the steps of: (a) providing a set of at least two identifiable liver tissue preparations as paraffin embedded sections from the same subject, the identifiable liver tissue preparations being prepared from the subject, then embedded in paraffin and attached to a transparent support; (b) subjecting the set of the liver tissue preparations to deparaffinization treatment; (c) subjecting one of the identifiable liver tissue preparations in the set treated in the step (b) to antigen retrieval treatment based on heat-induced epitope retrieval method, while subjecting the other liver tissue preparation to antigen retrieval treatment based on protease-induced epitope retrieval method; (d) contacting an anti-glypican 3 antibody with the preparations under conditions appropriate for formation of a complex of the anti-glypican 3 antibody with glypican 3 present in the liver tissue preparations treated in the step (c); and (e) detecting the presence of the complex by using immunohistochemistry, wherein when the complex is present, the subject is diagnosed as having liver cancer cells.