Title: In-silico dissection of tumours and its application in the identification of the tissue of origin of cancers of unknown primary site

Authors: T.A. Ayoubi, Patrick Lindsey, H.J.M. Smeets, A.P.M. Stassen

Addresses: VIB Department Molecular and Developmental Genetics, Center for Human Genetics, KU Leuven, O&N1 Herestraat 49 box 602, 3000 Leuven, Belgium. ' Department of Clinical Genetics, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Universiteitssingel 50, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands. ' Department of Genetics and Cell Biology, Unit Clinical Genomics, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Universiteitssingel 50, 6229 ER Maastricht, Maastricht, The Netherlands. ' Department of Clinical Genetics, Maastricht University Medical Centre, Universiteitssingel 50, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands

Abstract: We have used TCLASS® a multi-class tumour classifier that interprets gene expression microarray data and allows the identification of the primary site of CUPs. The classifier is implemented as a web-based tool and is an extremely simple and straightforward approach for molecular characterisation of tumour samples. We randomly selected 100 metastatic cancer samples from the large Expression Project for Oncology and show an accuracy of TCLASS of 88% on these samples. We conclude that TCLASS is a user friendly tool that will allow the molecular characterisation of tumour samples of unknown origin analysed with Affymetrix U133 Plus 2.0 GeneChips.

Keywords: CUP; cancer of unknown primary site; microarray data; molecular classifiers; biomarkers; gene expression profiling; affymetrix; tumour dissection; multi-class tumour classifiers; web-based classifiers; oncology; tissue of origin; tissue identification.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHTM.2011.039628

International Journal of Healthcare Technology and Management, 2011 Vol.12 No.2, pp.179 - 193

Published online: 28 Mar 2015 *

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