Molecular Pathology Selected Abstracts, 1/16
January 2016—Genomic sequencing of tumors can be used clinically to identify acquired somatic mutations in cancer-related genes. In an era of personalized medicine, tumor-specific mutational status can be used to acquire prognostic information and guide molecular targeted therapies. However, many patients also have germline variants in these genes, which not only can make it difficult to identify the tumor-specific somatic mutations, but may also affect the biological mechanism of tumorigenesis.