Method Description

The Myeloid Molecular Panel by Massively Parallel Sequencing performed in the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Genomics Laboratory, also called “FocusHeme”, is a targeted 49-gene DNA panel that is relevant to the diagnosis, prognosis, and/or therapeutic decision-making in hematological malignancies. The target genes and regions have been carefully selected for clinical relevance using available guidelines and recommendations from College of American Pathologists and National Comprehensive Cancer Network, relevant publications, late-phase clinical trials, and FDA-approved drugs associated with specific genomic markers that are single nucleotide, small insertion, and small deletion mutations. The variant and gene coverage is designed for hematological malignancies including myeloid and lymphoid lineage tumors, often in combination with other testing modalities (e.g. FISH, cytogenetics, SNP microarray, etc.). Single gene assessments by NGS for hematological tumors will be determined from this panel by the masking of all other results prior to pathologist review. The use of targeted massively parallel sequencing panels is recommended by NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) for several tumor types to replace algorithmic, reflexive molecular testing, as it is both cost effective and streamlines downstream data analysis. This panel is intended for use on peripheral blood, bone marrow aspirate, bone marrow core (formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded), or other FFPE samples containing hematological malignant processes such as lymph nodes and tumor resection specimens.