| abstract |
Objective methods for detecting and diagnosing intestinal-type gastric cancers are described herein. Also described is method for predicting the presence or absence of lymph node metastasis (i.e., identifying the metastatic phenotype). In one embodiment, the diagnostic method involves the scoring of gene expression profiles that discriminate between lymph node positive tumors and lymph node negative tumors. The predictive score calculated acts as diagnostic indicator that can objectively indicate whether a sample tissue has the metastatic phenotype. The present invention further provides methods of diagnosing intestinal-type gastric cancer in a subject, methods of screening for therapeutic agents useful in the treatment of intestinal-type gastric cancer, methods of treating intestinal-type gastric cancer and method of vaccinating a subject against intestinal-type gastric cancer. |