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

摘要

The invention relates to a method to diagnose prostate cancer by detecting a PCA3 sequence. In one embodiment the method and kit enables amplification of PCA3 RNA through an exon-exon junction of a spliced PCA3 mRNA, and methods and kits to detect an amplified PCA3 RNA, using a probe which spans the amplified exon-exon junction. The methods and kits can detect a PCA3 RNA lacking one intron or more. Also provided are methods of detecting PCA3 RNA expressed in non-prostate tissue or cells of the urinary tract, which comprises PCA3 intron 3. In addition, methods are provided to determine whether a sample from a subject contains or lacks prostate cells, by performing a hybridization and/or amplification reaction on RNA from the sample to detect the presence or level of PCA3 RNA that lacks at least one intron and distinguishing a prostate cell from a non-prostate cell.