General Medical Sciences
Genome analysis Photo courtesy of the National Institute of
SAN DIEGO—Comprehensive next-generation sequencing is both feasible and clinically useful in pediatric cancer patients, a new study suggests.
Researchers sequenced samples from 253 pediatric cancer patients and found that, in 79% of cases, there was at least one finding that could help guide care.
Scott Newman, PhD, of St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, presented these findings at the American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG) 2018 Annual Meeting (abstract 52).
The researchers conducted whole-genome, exome, and transcriptome sequencing of the patients’ tumors, as well as sequencing non-cancerous tissues from the same patients.
Of the 253 patients studied, 123 had hematologic malignancies.
The researchers found a mean of four pathogenic or likely pathogenic variants per patient (range, 0-18). This included prognostic (21.8%) and diagnostic (15.1%) variants as well as variants that could be targeted therapeutically (6.8%).
In all, 79% of the patients had at least one variant that was targetable, diagnostic, or prognostic. And test results were available within about 40 days, quickly enough that they could be used to guide care.
“With results available in a clinically relevant time frame, and pricing becoming increasingly comparable to the radiology and pathology tests, WGS [whole-genome sequencing] is becoming more accessible to pediatric oncology patients,” Dr. Newman said.
This work was part of the Genomes for Kids study (G4K), an effort to understand how best to use genetic data for pediatric cancer diagnosis and treatment. St. Jude has compiled the information from G4K into a publicly accessible online database.
The researchers have continued to perform sequencing on current patients, and, since the original study ended, have successfully used this method on roughly 300 additional patients. The team plans to continue studying sequencing methods in hopes of producing clinically applicable data more quickly.
G4K was sponsored by St. Jude.