A method is described for determining a
survival prognosis of a patient suffering from a
breast tumor, using
processing carried out by electronic
processing and / or calculation means. The method first comprises step (a) of defining a
biological network representative of a particular
biological process associated with the
breast tumor. The
biological network comprises a plurality of nodes, a set of directional relationships between these nodes and a set of genes associated with these nodes. The method also includes step (b) of accessing a
data set related to the patient, comprising
gene expressions in a biological sample of the tumor isolated from the patient; and step (c) of calculating a continuous expression value for the aforesaid nodes of the
biological network. If the node is associated with only one
gene and it is found that the
gene is present in the biological sample, the continuous expression value of the node is calculated as the expression of the associated gene detected in the biological sample. If the node is associated with multiple genes, and it is found that at least one of the aforesaid genes is present in the biological sample, the continuous expression value of the node is calculated based on the expressions of the associated genes, present in the biological sample. If the node is not associated with any gene, or the associated gene is not found in the biological sample, the node is marked as a node not associated with a continuous expression value. The method then comprises the following steps, carried out by the electronic
processing and / or calculation means: (d) binarizing the
data set of continuous expression values calculated for each node of the biological network to which a continuous expression value is associated, based on a comparison of the continuous expression value with a respective threshold, to thus obtain a first binarized
data set of the nodes, obtained based on the detections made; (e) calculating an aggressiveness
score based on the aforesaid first binarized data set of the nodes; and finally (f) determining a
survival prognosis result based on the aforesaid aggressiveness
score calculated.