Cell free DNA in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma: clinicopathologic correlations.

Detection of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from plasma cell free DNA (cfDNA) has shown promise for diagnosis, therapeutic targeting, and prognosis. This study explores ctDNA detection by next generation sequencing (NGS) and associated clinicopathologic factors in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Patients undergoing surgical exploration or resection of pancreatic lesions were enrolled with informed consent. Plasma samples (4-6 ml) were collected prior to surgery and cfDNA was recovered from 95 plasma samples. Adequate cfDNA for NGS (20 ng) was obtained from 81 patients. NGS was performed using the Oncomine Lung cfDNA assay on the Ion Torrent S5 sequencing platform. Twenty-five patients (30.9%) had detectable mutations in KRAS and/or TP53 with allele frequencies ranging from 0.05 to 8.5%, while mutations in other genes were detected less frequently and always along with KRAS or TP53. Detectable ctDNA mutations were more frequent in patients with poorly differentiated tumors, and patients without detectable ctDNA mutations showed longer survival (medians of 10.5 months vs. 18 months, p = 0.019). The detection of circulating tumor DNA in pancreatic adenocarcinomas is correlated with worse survival outcomes.

Personalized medicine in a community health system: the NorthShore experience.

Genomic and personalized medicine implementation efforts have largely centered on specialty care in tertiary health systems. There are few examples of fully integrated care systems that span the healthcare continuum. In 2014, NorthShore University HealthSystem launched the Center for Personalized Medicine to catalyze the delivery of personalized medicine. Successful implementation required the development of a scalable family history collection tool, the Genetic and Wellness Assessment (GWA) and Breast Health Assessment (BHA) tools; integrated pharmacogenomics programming; educational programming; electronic medical record integration; and robust clinical decision support tools. To date, more than 225,000 patients have been screened for increased hereditary conditions, such as cancer risk, through these tools in primary care. More than 35,000 patients completed clinical genetic testing following GWA or BHA completion. An innovative program trained more than 100 primary care providers in genomic medicine, activated with clinical decision support and access to patient genetic counseling services and digital healthcare tools. The development of a novel bioinformatics platform (FLYPE) enabled the incorporation of genomics data into electronic medical records. To date, over 4,000 patients have been identified to have a pathogenic or likely pathogenic variant in a gene with medical management implications. Over 33,000 patients have clinical pharmacogenomics data incorporated into the electronic health record supported by clinical decision support tools. This manuscript describes the evolution, strategy, and successful multispecialty partnerships aligned with health system leadership that enabled the implementation of a comprehensive personalized medicine program with measurable patient outcomes through a genomics-enabled learning health system model that utilizes implementation science frameworks.

Corrigendum: NGS implementation for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 variants in Chicagoland: an institutional perspective, successes and challenges.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2023.1177695.].

NGS implementation for monitoring SARS-CoV-2 variants in Chicagoland: An institutional perspective, successes and challenges.

Identification of SARS-CoV-2 lineages has shown to provide invaluable information regarding treatment efficacy, viral transmissibility, disease severity, and immune evasion. These benefits provide institutions with an expectation of high informational upside with little insight in regards to practicality with implementation and execution of such high complexity testing in the midst of a pandemic. This article details our institution's experience implementing and using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) to monitor SARS-CoV-2 lineages in the northern Chicagoland area throughout the pandemic. To date, we have sequenced nearly 7,000 previously known SARS-CoV-2 positive samples from various patient populations (e.g., outpatient, inpatient, and outreach sites) to reduce bias in sampling. As a result, our hospital was guided while making crucial decisions about staffing, masking, and other infection control measures during the pandemic. While beneficial, establishing this NGS procedure was challenging, with countless considerations at every stage of assay development and validation. Reduced staffing prompted transition from a manual to automated high throughput workflow, requiring further validation, lab space, and instrumentation. Data management and IT security were additional considerations that delayed implementation and dictated our bioinformatic capabilities. Taken together, our experience highlights the obstacles and triumphs of SARS-CoV-2 sequencing.

Clinical characteristics and viral load dynamics of COVID-19 in a mildly or moderately symptomatic outpatient sample.

BACKGROUND: Studies of outpatients with mild or moderate COVID-19 are uncommon. We studied: 1) association of symptoms with reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test results; and 2) association of initial RT-PCR cycle threshold (Ct) in relation to duration of RT-PCR positivity in outpatients with mild or moderate COVID-19. METHODS: This was a cohort study of outpatients with confirmed COVID-19 and at least one symptom. Participants had repeat nasopharyngeal swabs and symptom checklists every 3-5 days until two consecutive RT-PCR tests were negative. RT-PCR tests were used to assess viral load. Antibody tests for COVID-19 were performed at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks after symptom onset. RESULTS: Twenty-five patients (nine females) were enrolled, ranging in age from 19-58 (median age 28 years). All patients reported at least one symptom, with a median of six symptoms per patient. Symptoms persisted for 6-67 days (median duration 18 days). In all 25 patients, blood samples collected a median of 13 days after symptom onset were positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in 15 (60%). After a median of 28 days following symptom onset, 23/23 patients with available samples tested positive for antibodies. The longest duration of positive RT-PCR test was 49 days from first positive PCR test (Mean = 27.4, SD = 12.5, Median = 24). Initial Ct was significantly associated with longer duration (ß = -1.3, SE = 0.3, p<0.01 per 1 cycle higher) of RT-PCR positivity. CONCLUSIONS: In mildly or moderately ill COVID-19 outpatients, RT-PCT tests remained positive for as long as 49 days and test positivity and symptom duration correlated with initial viral load.

From Testing to Decision-Making: A Data-Driven Analytics COVID-19 Response.

In March 2020, NorthShore University Health System laboratories mobilized to develop and validate polymerase chain reaction based testing for detection of SARS-CoV-2. Using laboratory data, NorthShore University Health System created the Data Coronavirus Analytics Research Team to track activities affected by SARS-CoV-2 across the organization. Operational leaders used data insights and predictions from Data Coronavirus Analytics Research Team to redeploy critical care resources across the hospital system, and real-time data were used daily to make adjustments to staffing and supply decisions. Geographical data were used to triage patients to other hospitals in our system when COVID-19 detected pavilions were at capacity. Additionally, one of the consequences of COVID-19 was the inability for patients to receive elective care leading to extended periods of pain and uncertainty about a disease or treatment. After shutting down elective surgeries beginning in March of 2020, NorthShore University Health System set a recovery goal to achieve 80% of our historical volumes by October 1, 2020. Using the Data Coronavirus Analytics Research Team, our operational and clinical teams were able to achieve 89% of our historical volumes a month ahead of schedule, allowing rapid recovery of surgical volume and financial stability. The Data Coronavirus Analytics Research Team also was used to demonstrate that the accelerated recovery period had no negative impact with regard to iatrogenic COVID-19 infection and did not result in increased deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolisms, or cerebrovascular accident. These achievements demonstrate how a coordinated and transparent data-driven effort that was built upon a robust laboratory testing capability was essential to the operational response and recovery from the COVID-19 crisis.

Flype: Software for enabling personalized medicine.

The advent of next generation DNA sequencing (NGS) has revolutionized clinical medicine by enabling wide-spread testing for genomic anomalies and polymorphisms. With that explosion in testing, however, come several informatics challenges including managing large amounts of data, interpreting the results and providing clinical decision support. We present Flype, a web-based bioinformatics platform built by a small group of bioinformaticians working in a community hospital setting, to address these challenges by allowing us to: (a) securely accept data from a variety of sources, (b) send orders to a variety of destinations, (c) perform secondary analysis and annotation of NGS data, (d) provide a central repository for all genomic variants, (e) assist with tertiary analysis and clinical interpretation, (f) send signed out data to our EHR as both PDF and discrete data elements, (g) allow population frequency analysis and (h) update variant annotation when literature knowledge evolves. We discuss the multiple use cases Flype supports such as (a) in-house NGS tests, (b) in-house pharmacogenomics (PGX) tests, (c) dramatic scale-up of genomic testing using an external lab, (d) consumer genomics using two external partners, and (e) a variety of reporting tools. The source code for Flype is available upon request to the authors.

A Case of Severe, Nilotinib-Induced Liver Injury.

Idiosyncratic hepatotoxicity is a leading reason for the discontinuation or dose modification of Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved medications in the United States. We report the case of a 53-year-old woman with chronic myeloid leukemia who developed acute cholestatic hepatitis in response to the tyrosine kinase inhibitor nilotinib. Nilotinib was discontinued, and the patient's liver function tests normalized over the next 3 months. We conclude that nilotinib may cause life-threatening hepatotoxicity and recommend that patients on the medication undergo regular monitoring of their liver tests.

The Case for Laboratory Developed Procedures: Quality and Positive Impact on Patient Care.

An explosion of knowledge and technology is revolutionizing medicine and patient care. Novel testing must be brought to the clinic with safety and accuracy, but also in a timely and cost-effective manner, so that patients can benefit and laboratories can offer testing consistent with current guidelines. Under the oversight provided by the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments, laboratories have been able to develop and optimize laboratory procedures for use in-house. Quality improvement programs, interlaboratory comparisons, and the ability of laboratories to adjust assays as needed to improve results, utilize new sample types, or incorporate new mutations, information, or technologies are positive aspects of Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments oversight of laboratory-developed procedures. Laboratories have a long history of successful service to patients operating under Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments. A series of detailed clinical examples illustrating the quality and positive impact of laboratory-developed procedures on patient care is provided. These examples also demonstrate how Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments oversight ensures accurate, reliable, and reproducible testing in clinical laboratories.

Genomic Sequencing Procedure Microcosting Analysis and Health Economic Cost-Impact Analysis: A Report of the Association for Molecular Pathology.

The increasing use of advanced nucleic acid sequencing technologies for clinical diagnostics and therapeutics has made vital understanding the costs of performing these procedures and their value to patients, providers, and payers. The Association for Molecular Pathology invested in a cost and value analysis of specific genomic sequencing procedures (GSPs) newly coded by the American Medical Association Current Procedural Terminology Editorial Panel. Cost data and work effort, including the development and use of data analysis pipelines, were gathered from representative laboratories currently performing these GSPs. Results were aggregated to generate representative cost ranges given the complexity and variability of performing the tests. Cost-impact models for three clinical scenarios were generated with assistance from key opinion leaders: impact of using a targeted gene panel in optimizing care for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer, use of a targeted gene panel in the diagnosis and management of patients with sensorineural hearing loss, and exome sequencing in the diagnosis and management of children with neurodevelopmental disorders of unknown genetic etiology. Each model demonstrated value by either reducing health care costs or identifying appropriate care pathways. The templates generated will aid laboratories in assessing their individual costs, considering the value structure in their own patient populations, and contributing their data to the ongoing dialogue regarding the impact of GSPs on improving patient care.

Summary of microsatellite instability test results from laboratories participating in proficiency surveys: proficiency survey results from 2005 to 2012.

CONTEXT: The College of American Pathologists surveys are the largest laboratory peer comparison programs in the world. These programs allow laboratories to regularly evaluate their performance and improve the accuracy of the patient test results they provide. Proficiency testing is offered twice a year to laboratories performing microsatellite instability testing. These surveys are designed to emulate clinical practice, and some surveys have more challenging cases to encourage the refinement of laboratory practices. OBJECTIVE: This report summarizes the results and trends in microsatellite instability proficiency testing from participating laboratories from the inception of the program in 2005 through 2012. DESIGN: We compiled and analyzed data for 16 surveys of microsatellite instability proficiency testing during 2005 to 2012. RESULTS: The number of laboratories participating in the microsatellite instability survey has more than doubled from 42 to 104 during the 8 years analyzed. An average of 95.4% of the laboratories correctly classified each of the survey test samples from the 2005A through 2012B proficiency challenges. In the 2011B survey, a lower percentage of laboratories (78.4%) correctly classified the specimen, possibly because of overlooking subtle changes of microsatellite instability and/or failing to enrich the tumor content of the specimen to meet the limit of detection of their assay. CONCLUSIONS: In general, laboratories performed well in microsatellite instability testing. This testing will continue to be important in screening patients with colorectal and other cancers for Lynch syndrome and guiding the management of patients with sporadic colorectal cancer.