Appeal No. 1999-0339
Application 07/903,588
Claims 1 and 2 are illustrative of the subject matter on appeal and read as
follows:
1, A method for predicting the progression of a breast cancer comprising the
steps of:
(a) determining one or more of met DNA abundance, met mRNA abundance,
or Met protein abundance in normal breast tissue and in tumor breast tissue and (b)
comparing the abundance of said met DNA, met RNA or Met protein in normal breast
tissue with said met DNA, met RNA or Met protein in tumor breast tissue, wherein said
normal and tumor tissue is from the same breast, and wherein a higher abundance of
met DNA, met RNA, or Met protein in said normal tissue than in said tumor tissue
indicates a poor prognosis.
2. A method according to claim 1, comprising the steps of:
(a) contacting a section from a breast tumor with an antibody reagent specific
for Met protein under antibody binding conditions, wherein said section contains normal
breast tissue and tumor tissue;
(b) determining the binding of the reagent to Met protein in said normal tissue
and said tumor tissue; and
(c) comparing said binding of said reagent to Met protein in said normal
tissue with said binding in said tumor tissue; wherein, greater binding of said reagent to
said normal than to said tumor tissue indicates a poor prognosis.
The references relied upon by the examiner are:
Biéche et al., “Loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 7q and aggressive primary breast
cancer”, The Lancet, vol. 339, pgs. 139-143 (Jan. 1992).
Park et al., “Sequence of MET protooncogene cDNA has features characteristic of the
tyrosine kinase family of growth-factor receptors”, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., vol. 84, pgs.
6379-6383 (Sept. 1987).
The claims stand rejected as follows:
2
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