Development of new sequencing methods allowed faster and more economical genomic research. With these technologies, it is now possible to determine the complete sequence of human genome in a short time period and at a relatively low cost. Introduction of next generation sequencing methods to cancer research provided a comprehensive molecular characterization of cancers and enabled deeper insights into tumor complexity, heterogeneity and evolution. Next generation technologies have been applied to identify new causal mutations in genes in hereditary cancer syndromes. More than 15 various tumor types have been already sequenced and compared to that of normal cells allowing identification of new cancer driving mutations and genome structural rearrangements. In this review, we describe technical characteristics of main next generation sequencing platforms, briefly overview their pros and cons and clinical perspective.

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