Novel nucleic acids and polypeptides encoded thereby are provided that are highly duplicated and overexpressed in squamous cell carcinomas of a variety of tissues. Antibodies specific for binding the novel polypeptides are also provided. The invention further discloses several assays for gene duplication and overexpression of the novel gene and excessive production of the novel polypeptide in a sample. These assays permit assessing copy number in a sample from a subject, and contribute to the diagnosis, prognosis and development of therapeutic strategy for a pathology such as squamous cell carcinoma in a subject.