Application of Next-Generation Sequencing to Realize Principles of Precision Therapy in Management of Cancer Patients.

All cancers are diseases of the genome, since the cancer cell genome typically consists of 10,000s of passenger alterations, 5-10 biologically relevant alterations, and 1-2 "actionable" alterations. Therefore, somatic mutations in cancer cells can have diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive value. Traditional methods are widely used for testing, such as immunohistochemistry, Sanger sequencing, and allele-specific PCR.