Introduction

The invention concerns the use of a soluble isoform of the LCAM1 protein, produced by blood vessels and which promotes the morphological and functional changes that lead to the activation of angiogenesis. This isoform called L1-ΔTM could be used as a circulating bio-marker for the diagnosis and prognosis of tumor progression.

Technical features

Alternative splicing plays a role during tumorogenesis process since it supports the production from tumor cells of proteins stimulating proliferation, differentiation, apoptosis, angiogenesis, migration and metastasis formation. The authors found that in endothelial cells the adhesion molecule L1CAM undergoes to alternative splicing generating a shorter protein (L1-ΔTM) which is released into the bloodstream and stimulates angiogenesis. L1-ΔTM is up-regulated in the tumor vasculature of the ovarian carcinoma and in other types of solid tumors whose blood vessels shows high and specific expression of L1CAM. Since L1-ΔTM is released into the blood circulation, it could be used as a bio-marker of tumor progression. Therefore a procedure for diagnosis / prognosis is claimed of solid tumors through detecting L1-ΔTM in a biological fluid sample from diseased subjects.

Possible Applications

• Diagnosis in solid tumors;
• Detection of cancer progression to identify cancer patients eligible for anti-angiogenic treatment;
• Monitoring the effectiveness of anti-angiogenic treatments.

Advantages

• Detection on a sample of biological fluid such as peripheral blood;
• Diagnosis does not require invasive biopsy procedures such as removal of tissue samples;
• The concentration of the bio-marker does not change according to physiological conditions;
• It can be applied to different solid tumors.