ALK evaluation in the world of multiplex testing: Network Genomic Medicine (NGM): the Cologne model for implementing...

Comprehensive molecular genotyping of lung cancers has become a key requirement for guiding therapeutic decisions. As a paradigm model of implementing next-generation comprehensive diagnostics, Network Genomic Medicine (NGM) has established central diagnostic and clinical trial platforms for centralised testing and decentralised personalised treatment in clinical practice. Here, we describe the structures of the NGM network and give a summary of technologies to identify patients with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) fusion-positive lung adenocarcinomas. As unifying test platforms will become increasingly important for delivering reliable, quick and affordable tests, the NGM diagnostic platform is currently implementing a comprehensive hybrid capture-based parallel sequencing pan-cancer assay.