Next-generation scrimmaging.

Speaking of germlines, in order the enhance 'em you gotta test 'em. There’s a rising movement to sequence more than tumors and instead sequence entire germlines in order to add more prognostic info for both cancer patient and family. But before we jump on the germline screening bandwagon, a couple of obvious potholes come to mind. The first and most obvious is cost-effectiveness, but as our techniques continue to advance we expect the cost-benefit ratio to continue to shrink. The second and less talked-about worry is reliability and reproducibility of the exploding market of DNA sequencers. A recent study put two widely-used commercial next-generation sequencing (NGS) tests to the test by using them both head-to-head on the same nine tumors. Among 45 alterations detected overall, only 10(!) were concordant between the two platforms. Before NGS companies can recruit insurance providers to shell out costs for routine germline screenings, they are going to need to seriously beef up their stats.