Increased concentrations of both proinflammatory (e.g., tumor necrosis factor [TNF] [8], interleukin-6 [IL-6] [9], and IL-8 [10]) and anti-inflammatory (e.g., IL-1Ra [11], IL-10, and high IL-10/TNF ratios [6, 7]) cytokines in patients with sepsis have been previously demonstrated to predict mortality. The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is Sepsis.