What does it all mean?
Most genes being screened in NGS diagnostic
panels represent known druggable targets or
potential markers of resistance to existing targeted
drugs, and the majority of these drugs are
in turn aimed at treating the most commonly
diagnosed cancers, such as breast or colorectal
tumors. However, Stephens notes that
Foundation Medicine has had a great deal of
success assessing these loci in poorly characterized
tumors as well. “We’re finding very surprising
driver mutations within known cancer genes
in less-common tumors all the time,” he says.