Patent ID: 7910549

Claim:
A method for detecting hypoxia in a sample comprising preneoplastic/neoplastic tissue taken from a subject vertebrate having a preneoplastic/neoplastic disease, which tissue normally expresses no or low MN/CA IX protein, said detecting comprising: a) determining that said subject vertebrate is not afflicted by a disease caused by a defective von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) protein; and if not so afflicted, b) detecting MN/CA9 gene expression product in said vertebrate tissue; c) determining if said MN/CA9 gene expression product levels are abnormally high as compared to normal tissue; and d) detecting the presence of hypoxia in said vertebrate tissue based on the presence of MN/CA9 gene expression product at abnormally high levels, or the absence of hypoxia in said vertebrate tissue based on the absence or low levels of said MN/CA9 gene expression product in said vertebrate tissue.