| abstract |
The present invention is directed to a method of evaluating the risk of cancer development in a patient, comprising the steps of: (1) providing from the patient a sample of material for which the risk of cancer development is to be evaluated; (2) quantitating the proportion of mutated alleles in the sample, relative to nonmutated alleles; (3) quantitating the degree of diversity of mutated alleles in the sample; (4) correlating the proportion of mutated alleles and the degree of diversity of mutated alleles; and (5) repeating steps (1) to (4) for a sufficient time to evaluate the risk of cancer development in the patient. |