Patent ID: 8765389

Claim:
A method of determining the tendency of a tumor to form metastases which method comprises: (i) detection of a nucleic acid that encodes for a tumor-associated antigen, or (ii) detection of a tumor-associated antigen, in a biological sample comprising tumor cells isolated from a patient having a tumor, wherein the tumor-associated antigen is encoded by the nucleic acid of SEQ ID NO: 19, wherein the tumor is a melanoma, breast carcinoma, bronchial carcinoma, kidney carcinoma, ovarian carcinoma, or cervical carcinoma, and wherein the method further comprises the step of determining the tendency of the tumor to form metastases, wherein the presence of the nucleic acid that encodes for the tumor-associated antigen or presence of the tumor-associated antigen in the sample is indicative of the tendency of cells of the tumor to metastasize.