The European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) recently issued guidelines on use of next-generation sequencing (NGS) for various types of cancer as part of routine clinical practice. The guidelines also address whether broad-based NGS should replace small panels designed to test a single gene or a group of genes. The ESMO guidelines are the first recommendations from a scientific society on the use of NGS. Their objective is to “unify decision-making about how NGS should be used for patients with metastatic cancer.” The Diagnostic Challenge NGS is a high throughput technique that uses DNA sequencing technologies capable of deciphering multiple nucleotide sequences at the same time. NGS is used for cancer treatment and its effectiveness depends in large part on tumor type and the efficacy and availability of targeted drugs. Routine Use of NGS by Cancer Type The new guidelines, published in Annals of Oncology, address the eight cancers responsible for the most deaths worldwide as well as additional cancers for which routine NGS may be justified based on the ESMO Scale for Clinical Actionability of molecular Targets (ESCAT), which ranks molecular targets and their respective treatments on four levels. The authors also considered cost-effectiveness research regarding the use of […]