Patent ID: 7910315

Claim:
A method for early detection of hemangiosarcoma in a dog, the method comprising: (a) providing a population of cells obtained from a blood sample from the dog; (b) determining (i) the level at which cells within the cell population concurrently express a plurality of cell markers, the plurality of cell markers comprising at least one primitive hematopoietic cell marker and at least one endothelial cell marker, and (ii) whether or not cells within the cell population express at least one leukemia cell marker or leukocyte-specific cell marker, wherein the at least one primitive hematopoietic cell marker is selected from the group consisting of CD117, CD34, and CD133; the at least one endothelial cell marker is selected from the group consisting of CD51/CD61, CD31, CD105, CD106 CD146 and von Willebrand Factor (vWF); and the at least one leukemia cell marker or leukocyte-specific cell marker is selected from the group consisting of CD18, CD3, CD5, CD21 and CD11b; and (c) comparing the level at which cells in the cell population concurrently express the plurality of cell markers with a control level of concurrent expression of the markers, wherein (1) an increase in the expression level of the plurality of cell markers relative to the control expression level, and (2) the absence of expression of CD18, CD3, CD5, CD21 and/or CD11b collectively are an indication of hemangiosarcoma.