Updates of Molecular Testing in T-Cell Malignancies

Evolving molecular technologies and genomic knowledge has significantly changed the diagnosis and management of T-cell malignancies. More and more clinical laboratories have adopted next generation sequencing platforms to assess clonality and to identify diagnostic and predictive biomarkers. However, current standard testing practices to diagnose T-cell lymphomas use clonality assessment by fragment analysis. This approach has low sensitivity and low specificity, among other limitations, explains Jinjuan Yao, MD, FCAP, a pathologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a member of the CAP Personalized Health Care Committee. Dr. Yao has written an article (“The Updates of Molecular Testing in T-Cell Malignancies", https://capatholo.gy/3tOznDY) about how using next generation sequencing techniques allows more accurate initial diagnosis, as well as high sensitivity for detecting minimal residual disease and therefore improving post treatment outcomes, as she’ll explain in this CAPcast interview.