Patent ID: 7741023

Claim:
A method of determining the likely severity of prognosis for a neoplastic disease in a mammal, comprising: determining a level of expression of a plurality of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily subtypes in a first sample of whole blood from the mammal, said mammal having a solid neoplasm; exposing a second sample of whole blood of the mammal to a stimulus that activates leukocytes in the whole blood; determining a level of expression of the plurality of tumor necrosis factor (TNF) superfamily subtypes in the second sample; identifying subtypes that exhibit a statistically significant (p<0.05) change in expression level in said whole blood between said first and second samples, identifying TNF-R superfamily subtypes expressed in the solid neoplasm of the mammal; and determining a likely lesser severity of prognosis when the identified subtypes of TNF superfamily correspond to specific tumor necrosis factor receptor (TNF-R) superfamily subtypes expressed in said neoplasm of the mammal.