Cancer has been investigated due to its high mortality ever since last century. Although chemotherapy has been traditionally used for cancer patients for a long time, the obvious side effects have prevented its further application. With the progress of DNA sequencing technology, targeted therapy has been developed by affecting targeted molecules in the signaling pathways. It could act as an alternative strategy of cancer therapeutics. In this way, cancer patients could undergo fewer side effects than traditional chemotherapy. In the 21 st century, next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have emerged to dramatically promote the cancer genome research. Recent researches have shown that the rapid discoveries of mutated cancer genes by NGS are potential to revolutionize cancer therapeutics. In the future, the development of NGS technologies is hopeful to achieve personalized therapeutics in clinic. In this paper, we will first review the previous techniques and achievements of cancer research before the advent of NGS technologies. Then, recent advances in NGS technologies will be highlighted to demonstrate the potential contribution of cancer genomics in the future for prevention, detection and treatment.
The Development of Cancer Genome Research and its Clinical
Cancer Research before NGS Technologies Traditional cytogenetic studyDuring the cancer research in the past several decades, a variety of techniques were applied to investigate various cancer types. In the earliest stage of cancer research, the chromosome cytogenetic study of cancer cells was the mainstream method. By observing a population of cancer cells, scientists had found that cancer cells appeared to be apparently more unstable than normal cells. Thus, it was hypothesized that the tumor progression might result from acquired genetic variability within the original clone. These researches demonstrated the cytogenetic heterogeneity in human malignancies, suggesting that each patient may require personalized diagnosis and treatment [4].According to the low resolution of cytogenetic study, chromosome was the preferred objective in cancer research. In 1960, the chromosome translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22 was revealed in Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) cells, leading to BCR-ABL fusion gene [5]. Four decades later, the BCR-ABL fusion is regarded as the effective drug target to treat CML patients. In a word, traditional cytogenetic study had demonstrated the cytogenetic heterogeneity of cancer cells and the phenomenon of chromosomal translocation. Moreover, the type and extent of cancer cell aberrations were suggested to be associated with tumorigenesis. Thus, insights had been offered into cancer research that laid the basis for subsequent research and indicated the developmental direction in the future.
PCR-based direct sequencing studyBased on the development of cytogenetic techniques in recent years, the resolution of cancer genome research continuously increased. In the 20 th century, it was available to focus on the aberrant geno...