NGS in Advanced Cancers

In this study, we used NGS to identify somatic events in advanced stage cancer patients to demonstrate the feasibility for using this approach to improve patient treatment.]]>
To participate, patients must have been age ≥ 18 and willing to undergo a biopsy or surgical procedure to obtain tissue, unless a frozen tumor collected less than 8 weeks prior was available. Interested participants were made aware that obtaining a new biopsy may not be a part of the patient's routine care for their malignancy. Other eligibility criteria included: baseline laboratory data indicating acceptable bone marrow reserve, liver, and renal function, Karnofsky performance status ≥ 80%, and life expectancy > 3 months. Participation on another clinical trial involving treatment prior to or during participation on this study was allowed. Main exclusion criteria were symptomatic or untreated central nervous system (CNS) metastases, known active infections requiring intravenous antimicrobial therapy, known HBV, HCV, or HCV infection(s) requiring antiviral therapy, pregnant or breast feeding women, or tumor that was inaccessible for a biopsy.]]>