Disclosed is a method for determining survival and relapse of a patient undergoing therapy for a tumor by determining a residual cancer burden index based on the bidimensional diameters of a primary tumor bed of said tumor in a resection specimen, the proportion of the primary tumor bed area that contains invasive carcinoma, the number of regional lymph nodes containing metastatic carcinoma, the diameter of the largest metastasis in an regional lymph node; and the fractional reduction in lymph node size with each added positive lymph node.