Clinical Implementation of Integrated Genomic Profiling in Patients with Advanced Cancers.

DNA focused panel sequencing has been rapidly adopted to assess therapeutic targets in advanced/refractory cancer. Integrated Genomic Profiling (IGP) utilising DNA/RNA with tumour/normal comparisons in a Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) compliant setting enables a single assay to provide: therapeutic target prioritisation, novel target discovery/application and comprehensive germline assessment. A prospective study in 35 advanced/refractory cancer patients was conducted using CLIA-compliant IGP.

An integrated framework for reporting clinically relevant biomarkers from paired tumor/normal genomic and transcriptomic sequencing data in support of clinical trials in personalized medicine.

The ability to rapidly sequence the tumor and germline DNA of an individual holds the eventual promise of revolutionizing our ability to match targeted therapies to tumors harboring the associated genetic biomarkers. Analyzing high throughput genomic data consisting of millions of base pairs and discovering alterations in clinically actionable genes in a structured and real time manner is at the crux of personalized testing. This requires a computational architecture that can monitor and track a system within a regulated environment as terabytes of data are reduced to a small number of therapeutically relevant variants, delivered as a diagnostic laboratory developed test.

Whole genome sequencing reveals potential targets for therapy in patients with refractory KRAS mutated metastatic colorectal cancer.

Background: The outcome of patients with metastatic colorectal carcinoma (mCRC) following first line therapy is poor, with median survival of less than one year. The purpose of this study was to identify candidate therapeutically targetable somatic events in mCRC patient samples by whole genome sequencing (WGS), so as to obtain targeted treatment strategies for individual patients.

Methods: Four patients were recruited, all of whom had received > 2 prior therapy regimens.

Integrated genomic characterization reveals novel, therapeutically relevant drug targets in FGFR and EGFR pathways in sporadic intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma.

Advanced cholangiocarcinoma continues to harbor a difficult prognosis and therapeutic options have been limited. During the course of a clinical trial of whole genomic sequencing seeking druggable targets, we examined six patients with advanced cholangiocarcinoma. Integrated genome-wide and whole transcriptome sequence analyses were performed on tumors from six patients with advanced, sporadic intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (SIC) to identify potential therapeutically actionable events.

Simultaneous characterization of somatic events and HPV-18 integration in a metastatic cervical carcinoma patient using DNA and RNA sequencing.

Objective: Integration of carcinogenic human papillomaviruses (HPVs) into the host genome is a significant tumorigenic factor in specific cancers including cervical carcinoma. Although major strides have been made with respect to HPV diagnosis and prevention, identification and development of efficacious treatments for cervical cancer patients remains a goal and thus requires additional detailed characterization of both somatic events and HPV integration. Given this need, the goal of this study was to use the next generation sequencing to simultaneously evaluate somatic alterations and expression changes in a patient's cervical squamous carcinoma lesion metastatic to the lung and to detect and analyze HPV infection in the same sample.

A pilot study using next-generation sequencing in advanced cancers: feasibility and challenges.

Purpose: New anticancer agents that target a single cell surface receptor, up-regulated or amplified gene product, or mutated gene, have met with some success in treating advanced cancers. However, patients' tumors still eventually progress on these therapies. If it were possible to identify a larger number of targetable vulnerabilities in an individual's tumor, multiple targets could be exploited with the use of specific therapeutic agents, thus possibly giving the patient viable therapeutic alternatives.

Identification of somatic mutations in cancer through Bayesian-based analysis of sequenced genome pairs.

Background: The field of cancer genomics has rapidly adopted next-generation sequencing (NGS) in order to study and characterize malignant tumors with unprecedented resolution. In particular for cancer, one is often trying to identify somatic mutations--changes specific to a tumor and not within an individual's germline. However, false positive and false negative detections often result from lack of sufficient variant evidence, contamination of the biopsy by stromal tissue, sequencing errors, and the erroneous classification of germline variation as tumor-specific.

Genome and transcriptome sequencing in prospective metastatic triple-negative breast cancer uncovers therapeutic vulnerabilities.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is characterized by the absence of expression of estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor, and HER-2. Thirty percent of patients recur after first-line treatment, and metastatic TNBC (mTNBC) has a poor prognosis with median survival of one year. Here, we present initial analyses of whole genome and transcriptome sequencing data from 14 prospective mTNBC.

Genome-wide characterization of pancreatic adenocarcinoma patients using next generation sequencing.

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAC) is among the most lethal malignancies. While research has implicated multiple genes in disease pathogenesis, identification of therapeutic leads has been difficult and the majority of currently available therapies provide only marginal benefit. To address this issue, our goal was to genomically characterize individual PAC patients to understand the range of aberrations that are occurring in each tumor.

Cancer of the ampulla of Vater: analysis of the whole genome sequence exposes a potential therapeutic vulnerability.

Background: Recent advances in the treatment of cancer have focused on targeting genomic aberrations with selective therapeutic agents. In rare tumors, where large-scale clinical trials are daunting, this targeted genomic approach offers a new perspective and hope for improved treatments. Cancers of the ampulla of Vater are rare tumors that comprise only about 0.

Paired tumor and normal whole genome sequencing of metastatic olfactory neuroblastoma.

Background: Olfactory neuroblastoma (ONB) is a rare cancer of the sinonasal tract with little molecular characterization. We performed whole genome sequencing (WGS) on paired normal and tumor DNA from a patient with metastatic-ONB to identify the somatic alterations that might be drivers of tumorigenesis and/or metastatic progression.

Methodology/principal Findings: Genomic DNA was isolated from fresh frozen tissue from a metastatic lesion and whole blood, followed by WGS at >30X depth, alignment and mapping, and mutation analyses.

Whole-genome sequencing of multiple myeloma from diagnosis to plasma cell leukemia reveals genomic initiating events, evolution, and clonal tides.

The longitudinal evolution of a myeloma genome from diagnosis to plasma cell leukemia has not previously been reported. We used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) on 4 purified tumor samples and patient germline DNA drawn over a 5-year period in a t(4;14) multiple myeloma patient. Tumor samples were acquired at diagnosis, first relapse, second relapse, and end-stage secondary plasma cell leukemia (sPCL).

Next-generation sequencing of Coccidioides immitis isolated during cluster investigation.

Next-generation sequencing enables use of whole-genome sequence typing (WGST) as a viable and discriminatory tool for genotyping and molecular epidemiologic analysis. We used WGST to confirm the linkage of a cluster of Coccidioides immitis isolates from 3 patients who received organ transplants from a single donor who later had positive test results for coccidioidomycosis. Isolates from the 3 patients were nearly genetically identical (a total of 3 single-nucleotide polymorphisms identified among them), thereby demonstrating direct descent of the 3 isolates from an original isolate.