SPECIFIC METHOD OF PROSTATE CANCER DETECTION BASED ON PCA3 GENE, AND KITS THEREFOR

摘要

The present invention relates, in general, to prostate cancer. Morespecifically, the present invention relates to a method to diagnose prostatecancer in a, patient by detecting a PCA3 sequence, and more particularly aPCA3 RNA, the PCA3 sequence detected in a sample from the patient beingspecifically associated with prostate cancer. In a particular embodiment themethod and kit enables an amplification of a PCA3 RNA through an exon-exonjunction of a spliced PCA3 mRNA. The invention also related to methods andkits to detect such an amplified PCA3 RNA, using a probe which spans theamplified exonexon junction. The invention also relates to kits containingnucleic acid primers and kits containing nucleic acid primers and nucleic acidprobes to diagnose, assess, or prognose a human afflicted with prostatecancer. In particular the methods and kits are designed to detect a PCA3 RNAwhich lacks one intron or more, and in particular case is intron-less.