Clinical next-generation sequencing (NGS) can mean different things to different people, so when trying to understand the current landscape of clinical NGS, it is important to appreciate that it covers a wide range of applications—from single-gene testing to whole-genome sequencing. Also known as high-throughput sequencing—owing to its more rapid resolution…

Personal Genome Diagnostics Inc. (PGDx) is being acquired by testing giant Labcorp for $450M. PGDx offers the elio tissue complete diagnostic kit, which is cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for pan-solid cancer comprehensive tumor profiling using a 500+ gene panel.  Because it is a kit, and incorporates…

Whole genome screening (WGS) and gene network modules were used to predict non-small cell lung (NSCLC) patients’ risk of developing myelosuppression in a study by researchers at Linköping University, Sweden. Blood samples from 96 patients treated for NSCLC with gemcitabine/carboplatin were analyzed to find several thousand SNVs/INDELS associated with the…

A new study confirms that multi-gene panel testing is cost-effective compared to single-marker testing, but could deliver more value if patients received the targeted therapy indicated by the test results. In the study, which was published 22 June 2019 in JCO Clinical Cancer Informatics,researchers estimated the cost effectiveness of managing therapeutic…

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and IBM Watson Health said they have extended their two-year-old precision oncology partnership, designed to help interpret cancer data in the treatment of veterans through artificial intelligence (AI). Launched in June 2016 as part of the National Cancer Moonshot Initiative, the partnership has…

Freenome’s artificial intelligence (AI) genomics platform will be evaluated by Institut Curie as a novel tool to predict patient response to immuno-oncology therapies, the partners said today, through a collaboration whose value was not disclosed. Freenome’s Adaptive Genomics Engine platform will be evaluated by observing changes in circulating cell-free biomarkers,…

Eleven genetics-focused professional organizations are calling for researchers to use caution in applying CRISPR toward human germline genome editing—but stopped short of calling for a ban—just one day after publication of a landmark study detailing the first-in-the-U.S. use of the technology to repair a germline mutation in human embryos created…

Molecular diagnostics company Biocept announced today it will collaborate with Shilpa Gupta, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota to observe the performance of the company’s liquid biopsy platform to detect the expression of PD-L1 and androgen receptor (AR) in patients diagnosed with bladder and prostate cancers. Biocept’s Target Selector™ platform…

In a new study from the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP), a global, non-profit organization serving molecular diagnostic professionals, researchers described the results from a 2015 analysis of the costs and health economic impact of several Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) genomic sequencing procedures (GSPs). The findings from this study were…

There are huge benefits to genomic tumor assessment, both for better treatment now, and later, if first-line treatments fail. But I don’t think many cancer patients—and even some physicians—fully understand how important tumor sequencing can be to successful cancer treatment. Yet. This is not surprising. Outside of a few tests…