DETECTING TUMOURS

摘要

A method of determining whether a human patient has a tumour or whether a tumour has metastasised comprising the steps of (1) obtaining a sample of tissue from the patient, the said tissue being one that does not normally contain a cytokeratin 20 (CK20) gene product and (2) determining whether a cytokeratin 20 (CK20) gene product is present in said tissue sample. Once it has been determined whether a human patient has a tumour or is likely to develop metastatic disease from such a tumour, the physician can decide on an appropriate course of treatment.