Patent ID: 8481271

Claim:
An in vitro method for the prognosis of survival time of a patient suffering from cancer, which method comprises the following steps: a) removing one or more pieces or slices of tissue from a tumor, wherein said one or more pieces or slices of tissue include either or both tumor center (CT) tissue from the center of the tumor and invasive margin (IM) tissue from the invasive margin of the tumor, said removing step obtaining both said CT tissue and said IM tissue; b) separately quantifying for said CT tissue and for said IM tissue in said one or more pieces or slices, cell densities of each of at least two types of cells selected from the group consisting of CD45RO cells, CD8 cells, CD3 cells and Granzyme B (GZMB) cells, wherein said step of quantifying includes the step of binding antibodies specifically to biological markers expressed by said at least two types of cells; c) providing predetermined cut-off reference values for cell densities of CD3, CD8, CD45RO, and GZMB cells in CT and IM tumor tissue samples, wherein said predetermined cut-off reference values are correlated with a specific prognosis of survival time; d) comparing cell density quantification values obtained at step b) with corresponding predetermined cut-off reference values selected from the predetermined cut-off reference values provided in step c, and and e) determining a prognosis for said patient, wherein a favorable prognosis of survival time is provided for said patient when the quantification values for said cell densities of each of said at least two types of cells are, in both said CT tumor tissue and in said IM tumor tissue, higher than said corresponding predetermined cut-off reference values; and wherein a poor prognosis of survival time is provided for said patient when the quantification values for said cell densities of each of said at least two types of cells are, in both said CT tumor tissue and in said IM tumor tissue, lower than said corresponding predetermined cut-off reference values.