Chapter 18 – Somatic Diseases (Cancer): Amplification-Based Next-Generation Sequencing

The focus of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology is now shifting to include clinical applications owing to the major advantage of NGS, decreasing of sequencing cost while increasing throughput. Clinical applications of NGS in cancer can detect clinically actionable genetic/genomic alterations that are critical for cancer care. In certain cancers, patient risk and prognosis can be predicted based on the mutation profile identified by NGS. Many targeted therapies have been developed for cancer patients who bear specific mutations; however, choosing the right NGS technique for the appropriate clinical application in cancer can be challenging because of the limited material and short turnaround time for such cancer tests. Currently, amplification-based NGS approaches have emerged as one of the best fits for clinical oncology. In this review, we focus on NGS platforms that are suitable for targeted deep sequencing, amplification-based NGS technologies, and clinical applications of amplification-based NGS in cancer.