Patent ID: 7816493

Claim:
A soluble form of CA IX which is released from cancerous or precancerous and cancerous cells of a vertebrate into a body fluid; wherein said soluble form of CA IX is a protein having an amino acid sequence from or of SEQ ID NO: 5, or a protein having an amino acid sequence from or of CA IX's extracellular domain, wherein CA IX is encoded by a nucleotide sequence selected from: i) SEQ ID NO: 1; ii) nucleotide sequences which hybridize under stringent hybridization conditions of 0.02 M to 0.15 M NaCl at temperatures of 50° C. to 70° C. to the complement of SEQ ID NO: 1; and iii) nucleotide sequences that differ from SEQ ID NO: 1 due to the degeneracy of the genetic code; wherein said soluble CA IX has a molecular weight of from about 15 kilodaltons to about 54 kilodaltons (kd); and wherein said precancerous and/or cancerous cells are from a precancer and/or cancer that is associated with abnormal expression of CA IX; and wherein said soluble CA IX is specifically bound by the V/10 monoclonal antibody that is secreted from the hybridoma V/10-VU, which was deposited under the Budapest Treaty at the International Depository Authority of the Belgian Coordinated Collection of Microorganisms (BCCM) at the Laboratorium voor Moleculaire Bioloqie-Plasmidencollectie (LMBP) at the Universeit Gent in Gent, Belgium, under Accession No. LMBP 6009CB.