Gene classifiers and uses thereof in non-melanoma skin cancers

1. A method for non-invasively identifying a non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC), the NMSC being basal cell carcinoma (BCC) or squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), the method comprising:

(a) isolating nucleic acids from a skin sample adhered to an adhesive patch, the skin sample having been obtained from a subject suspected of having the NMSC;

(b) contacting the isolated nucleic acids with a set of probes that recognize one or more genes of interest selected from COL5A2, 11,24, AADACL2, PRKACA, and SPP1;

(c) detecting or measuring an amount of binding between the one or more genes of interest and the set of probes;

(d) identifying the subject as having NMSC based on the presence of or amount of binding between the one or more genes of interest and the set of probes; and

(e) performing surgery on the subject identified as having NMSC to remove or partially remove the NMSC from the subject.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating steps (a)-(c) for a plurality of skin samples.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising differentiating skin samples having been obtained from the subject suspected of having the NMSC from one or more non-cancer skin samples.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein differentiating comprises generating a plurality of pair-wise interactions between at least two genes of interest in the skin sample.

5. The method of claim 4 , further comprising analyzing the plurality of pair-wise interactions to determine an area under a curve (AUC) value for each of the plurality of pair-wise interactions.

6. The method of claim 5 , further comprising differentiating the skin sample in the subject suspected of having NMSC from the one or more non-cancer samples when an AUC value is greater than about 0.9.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method differentiates primary cutaneous basal cell carcinoma (BCC) and/or squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) samples from benign and precursor lesions for actinic keratosis (AK) and/or seborrheic keratosis (SK).

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein differentiation has a sensitivity of at least about 90% and a specificity of at least about 70%.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises providing information regarding one or more of: identification of a disease state, determining likelihood of treatment success for a given disease state, identification of progression of a disease state, or identification of a disease stage.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the skin sample is from the stratum corneum layer of the subject's skin.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the skin sample comprises keratinocytes, melanocytes, basal cells, T-cells, or dendritic cells.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising comparing an amount of binding between the one or more genes of interest and the set of probes to a control or threshold amount of binding.

13. The method of claim 12 , comprising identifying the subject as having BCC or SCC, based on the amount of binding between the genes of interest and the set of probes relative to the control or threshold of binding.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising administering an effective amount of a therapeutic agent to the subject identified as having BCC or SCC.

15. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more genes of interest comprise five or more of IGFL1, MMP1, COL5A2, IL24, AADACL2, PTCH1, CD68, PRKACA, SPP1, S100A7, CMPK2, IRF7, CXCL1, UPP1, DEFB4A, FOS, OAS3, SCD5, RTP4, and VEGFA.

16. The method of claim 1 , further comprising analyzing expression level and mutational changes of a second set of one or more genes of interest.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the second set of one or more genes of interest comprises TERT.

18. A method for non-invasively identifying a non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) comprising basal cell carcinoma (BCC) or squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), comprising:

(a) identifying a subject suspected of having the NMSC;

(b) applying an adhesive patch to the subject's skin in a manner sufficient to adhere a skin sample to the adhesive patch;

(c) removing the adhesive patch from the subject's skin in a manner sufficient to retain the skin sample adhered to the adhesive patch;

(d) obtaining expression levels of one or more genes of interest selected from COL5A2, IL24, AADACL2, PRKACA, and SPP1, or determining an amount of binding between the one or more genes of interest and a set of probes that recognize the one or more genes of interest;

(e) determining that the subject has NMSC comprising BCC or SCC based on the expression level of the one or more genes of interest; and

(f) performing surgery on the subject identified as having NMSC to remove or partially remove the NMSC from the subject.

19. A method of treating a subject with basal cell carcinoma (BCC) or squamous cell skin cancer (SCC), comprising:

(a) identifying a subject suspected of having BCC or SCC;

(b) obtaining a skin sample from the subject by applying an adhesive patch to the subject's skin in a manner sufficient to adhere the skin sample to the adhesive patch;

(c) removing the adhesive patch from the subject's skin in a manner sufficient to retain the skin sample adhered to the adhesive patch;

(d) isolating nucleic acids from the skin sample;

(e) contacting the isolated nucleic acids with a set of probes that recognize one or more genes of interest selected from COL5A2, IL24, AADACL2, PRKACA, and SPP1 ;

(f) detecting or measuring the amount of binding between the one or more genes of interest and the set of probes;

(g) identifying the subject as having BCC or SCC, based on the amount of binding between the one or more genes of interest and the set of probes; and

(h) performing surgery on the subject identified as having BCC or SCC to remove or partially remove the BCC or SCC from the subject.