ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 12 -- United States Patent no. 12,246,044, issued on March 11, was assigned to INSTITUT GUSTAVE ROUSSY (Villejuif, France).

"Bacterial and cell compositions for the treatment of colorectal cancer and methods for assessing a prognosis for patients having the same" was invented by Laurence Zitvogel (Paris) and Maria Paula Roberti (Paris).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The invention relates to the prognosis and treatment of colon cancer. In particular, the present invention concerns the role of intestinal microbiota in the anticancer immune response elicited by ileal enterocytes succumbing to apoptosis, and provides immunogenic compositions for treating colorectal cancer (C...