ALTERNATIVE SPLICE VARIANT PATTERNS OF HUMAN TELOMERASE REVERSE TRANSCRIPTASE (hTERT) IN THYROID TUMORS TO DISTINGUISH BENIGN FROM MALIGNANT

摘要

This invention relates, e.g., to a method for determining if a thyroid tumor in a subject is malignant, comprising determining in a sample from the subject the amount of TERT (telomerase reverse transcriptase) mRNA which lacks the β sequence and the amount of TERT mRNA in the sample which comprises the β sequence, wherein a preponderance (e.g., at least about 55%) of TERT mRNA in the sample which comprises the β sequence indicates that the tumor is malignant, and wherein a preponderance of TERT mRNA which lacks the β sequence indicates that the tumor is not malignant.