TITLE:
Next Generation Sequencing in Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment Is Coming of Age
AUTHORS:
Rana Hallak, Yasmin Alchikh Youssef, Mohamad Amer Al Chikh Youssef
KEYWORDS:
NGS, Personalized Cancer Therapy, Mutations, FDA-Actionable Therapy, Off-Label Therapy
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biosciences and Medicines,
Vol.14 No.9,
September
21,
2026
ABSTRACT: Next-generation sequencing has long since emerged as the method of choice for whole genome sequencing as well as for assessing genetic changes in a vast set of genes. Hence, it was bound to propagate the approach of personalized medicine that came forth, esp. in oncology. Instead of subjecting patients with a certain tumor entity to a certain tumor-specific therapy, patients even diagnosed with different tumor entities may receive identical, yet patient-specific treatments based on certain mutations identified in the tumor. In a nutshell, gene mutations that affect key metabolic pathways and are believed to be causative, i.e., driver mutations, direct the therapy towards the respective lost or gained function and allow intervention at the root cause, provided that the respective drug is available. This holds the promise to increase therapeutic success while limiting adverse side effects, esp. those of generalized chemotherapy. With respect to the high costs of NGS, it is crucial to obtain data about how many patients actually benefit in what proportion of cases, valid therapeutic recommendations are based on NGS and not on more conventional and thus cheaper diagnostic procedures. Two years after scrutinizing a cohort of 20 patients with rather mixed results, we’d like to come forth with a larger cohort of 43 patients and in our opinion the perspective has vastly improved.