DIAGNOSTIC TEST FOR SUSCEPTIBILITY TO B-RAF KINASE INHIBITORS

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide methods and compositions for finding cancer patients as candidates for a treatment using an inhibitor of B-Raf kinase, a serine/threonine kinase.SOLUTION: The method of the invention for determining the sensitivity of a cancer cell to a B-Raf inhibitor comprises the steps of: (i) preparing a nucleic acid sample from a cancer cell derived from a cancer patient; (ii) amplifying the target polynucleotide sequence in the nucleic acid sample using a primer pair that amplifies the target polynucleotide sequence, where the target polynucleotide sequence comprises a V600E mutation site of B-RAF and amplification is carried out in the presence of a labeled target oligonucleotide probe of at least 15 contiguous nucleotides to detect the presence of the mutated sequence at the V600E mutation site of B-RAF; and (iii) detecting the presence or absence of V600E mutation in B-RAF, thereby determining the sensitivity of the cancer to the B-RAF inhibitor.