John Wayne Cancer Institute

John Wayne Cancern Institute

Naoyuki Umetani

Dave S B Hoon

The invention relates to a method of determining whether a human subject is suffering from or at risk for developing pancreatic cancer by determining the methylation level of an ID4 gene promoter or the expression level of an ID4 gene in a biological sample from a human subject. Also disclosed are a method of analyzing the methylation level of an ID4 gene promoter or the expression level of an ID4 gene in a pancreatic cancer cell, and a method of inhibiting the methylation of an ID4 gene promoter or enhancing the expression of an ID4 gene by contacting a pancreatic cancer cell with a compound that decreases the methylation level of an ID4 gene promoter or increases the expression level of an ID4 gene in the cell.

Use of ID4 for diagnosis and treatment of cancer

Methods for diagnosis and treatment of cancer using ID4 are disclosed. Specifically, epigenetic inactivation of ID4 in colorectal carcinomas and breast correlates with poor differentiation and unfavorable prognosis. Further, aberrant hypermethylation of ID4 gene promoter region increases risk of metastasis in colorectal and breast cancer.

Growing community of inventors

Tokyo, Japan

Naoyuki Umetani