Guidelines for Validation of Next-Generation Sequencing –Based Oncology Panels

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) methods for cancer testing have been rapidly adopted by clinical laboratories. To establish analytical validation best practice guidelines for NGS gene panel testing of somatic variants, a working group was convened by the Association of Molecular Pathology with liaison representation from the College of American Pathologists. These joint consensus recommendations address NGS test development, optimization, and validation, including recommendations on panel content selection and rationale for optimization and familiarization phase conducted before test validation; utilization of reference cell lines and reference materials for evaluation of assay performance; determining of positive percentage agreement and positive predictive value for each variant type; and requirements for minimal depth of coverage and minimum number of samples that should be used to establish test performance characteristics.

Source: Journal of Molecular Diagnostics - March 20, 2017 Category: Pathology Authors: Lawrence J. Jennings, Maria E. Arcila, Christopher Corless, Suzanne Kamel-Reid, Ira M. Lubin, John Pfeifer, Robyn L. Temple-Smolkin, Karl V. Voelkerding, Marina N. Nikiforova Tags: Special Article Source Type: research