Abstract: Methods are disclosed for the identification of gene sets that are differentially expressed in PBMCs of patients diagnosed with a pre-diabetic disease state and overt type II diabetes. 3 gene and 10 gene signatures are shown to accurately predict a diabetic disease state in a patient. The application also described kits for the rapid diagnosis of diabetic disease states in patients at a point of care facility.

Abstract: The disclosed method rapidly identifies with desired accuracy AML patients, including elderly AML patients, likely to respond to treatment with a combination of a farnesyltransferase inhibitor and one or more of etoposide, teniposide, tamoxifen, sorafenib, paclitaxel, temozolomide, topotecan, trastuzumab and cisplatinum. In an embodiment, the improvements include the use of whole blood rather than the customary bone marrow sample, thus making the assay more accurate, rapid, less intrusive, less expensive as well as less painful. The method includes evaluation of a two-gene expression ratio (RASGRP1:APTX), which with a corresponding threshold, provides sufficient accuracy for predicting the response to the combination treatment. In the preferred embodiment the combination treatment combines tipifarnib (R115777, ZARNESTRA®) with etoposide.