Validation and Implementation of a Somatic-Only Tumor Exome for Routine Clinical Application

Next-generation sequencing–based genomic testing is standard of care for tumor workflows. However, its application across different institutions continues to be challenging given the diversity of needs and resource availability among different institutions globally. Moreover, the use of a variety of different panels, including those from a few individual genes to those involving hundreds of genes, results in a relatively skewed distribution of care for patients. It is imperative to obtain a higher level of standardization without having to be restricted to specific kits or requiring repeated validations, which are generally expensive. We show the validation and clinical implementation of the DH-CancerSeq assay, a tumor-only whole-exome–based sequencing assay with integrated informatics, while providing similar input requirements, sensitivity, and specificity to a previously validated targeted gene panel and maintaining similar turnaround times for patient care.