The present invention relates to a highly sensitive real-time RT-PCR method for specifically detecting the expression of more than one MAGE gene. The present invention further relates to a diagnostic composition for carrying out such a real-time RT-PCR as well as to oligonucleotides suitable for the cDNA synthesis reaction prior to real-time PCR amplification of more than one marker from the MAGE gene family. To enable the quantitative measurement of MAGE gene expression in a clinical sample an RT-protocol was invented using very sophisticated non-standard conditions to accomplish real-time PCR amplification of cDNA of several MAGE family members in relation to a comparative normalizing reference gene as internal control.