Methods for Detecting Progression of Low Grade Cervical Dysplasia
Description of Invention:
This invention describes a test that can be applied to Pap smears to differentiate low-grade dysplastic lesions that are likely to progress to higher-grade dysplasia and cervical cancer from those that are likely to regress. The differentiating factor is the presence of genetic gain on the long arm of chromosome 3. The inventors have shown that low grade Pap smears that progress already exhibit extra copies of 3q, while those that do not show the 3q gain spontaneously regress.
Around 10-15% of the 3 million Pap smears with low-grade dysplasia each year in the United States progress to higher-grade lesions. Currently, HPV testing is used to stratify these low-grade disease Pap smears, but as the majority of these Pap smears are already HPV infected, the test has very low specificity. The instant 3q test, which targets the human telomerase gene, TERC, is a significant improvement in sensitivity and specificity over the current methods used for the detection of progressing versus regressing lesions.
Inventors:
Thomas Ried et al. (NCI)
Patent Status:
DHHS Reference No. E-041-2005/0 --
U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/654,176 filed 18 Feb 2005
PCT Application No. PCT/US2006/006116 filed 21 Feb 2006, which published as WO 2006/089287 on 24 Aug 2006
U.S. Patent Application No. 11/884,608 filed 16 Aug 2007
Portfolios: Cancer
Cancer -Diagnostics-In Vitro-DNA Based Cancer -Diagnostics
For Additional Information Please Contact: Surekha Vathyam Ph.D.
Office of Technology Transfer
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Phone: 301/435-4076
Email: vathyams@mail.nih.gov
Fax: 301/402-0220
