Patent ID: 7711494

Claim:
A method for predicting relapse risk in a patient undergoing therapy for a solid tumor, the method comprising providing from a patient with a primary and metastatic tumor d 1 , d 2 , f cell ; LN, and d met , wherein d 1 and d 2 are bidimensional diameters of a primary tumor bed of said tumor in a resection specimen measured in millimeters; f cell is the proportion of the primary tumor bed area that contains invasive carcinoma, LN is the number of regional lymph nodes containing metastatic carcinoma, and d met is the diameter of the largest metastasis in an regional lymph node, calculating using a computer a residual cancer burden (RCB) index using said d 1 , d 2 , f cell , LN and d met ; and predicting relapse risk of said patient based on said RCB index, wherein said RCB index is determined using RCB=1.4( f inv d prim ) 0.17 +[4(1−0.75 LN ) d met ] 0.17 .