As genomics-focused pharmacology begins to play a greater role in cancer treatment, next-generation sequencing (NGS) has emerged as a valuable method for obtaining a deeper and more accurate look into the molecular underpinnings of individual tumors. With targeted therapies becoming the new standard of care in oncology, NGS-driven companion diagnostics are widely seen as driving the selection of treatments to optimize patient outcomes in the future.
Compared to traditional methods, NGS offers advantages in accuracy, sensitivity, and speed that has the potential to make a significant impact on the field of oncology. Because NGS can assess multiple genes in a single assay, it eliminates the need to order multiple tests to identify the causative mutation.
This multigene approach decreases the time to answer, providing a more economical solution and reducing the risk of exhausting precious clinical samples. In addition, NGS can provide high sensitivity, enabling the detection of mutations present at as little as 5% of the DNA isolated from a tumor sample.
NGS has the potential to change the future of oncology and advance the promise of personalized medicine. We invite you to learn more by examining the resources collected here.
Learn more about how NGS technology works and the advantages it offers over traditional methods in this in-depth introduction tailored to molecular pathologists.
View Intro for PathologistsJaclyn Hechtman, MD, Associate Attending Pathologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses the relevance of RET alterations in non-small cell lung cancer and the pros and cons of different technical approaches to identify RET fusions and single-nucleotide variants.
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NGS offers the sensitivity and specificity that clinical researchers need to detect low levels of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the bloodstream.
Explore the benefits of NGS and microarrays for analyzing altered methylation patterns and other epigenetic changes in cancer.