About 20,000 people with cancer per year would benefit from more advanced next generation sequencing (NGS) covered by the National Health Insurance (NHI) system, the National Health Research Institutes said on Tuesday.
Testing for cancer, which has long been the leading cause of death in the nation, now sees a significant advancement with the inclusion in the NHI system since May 1 of NGS for 19 types of cancer, the institute said at a news conference.
The NHI-covered NGS assesses cancers including lung, colorectal, pancreatic cancers and leukemia, and aids in the selection of appropriate treatment or the assessment for bone marrow transplant suitability, the National Health Insurance Administration (NHIA) said.
Photo: CNA
NGS breaks down DNA samples, and then links them back together at the computer-end to conduct analysis, National Taiwan University Cancer Center superintendent James Yang (楊志新) said.
“After approximately 400 to 1,000 sequencing cycles, we compare it with normal DNA to determine which parts of the tumor DNA have variations,” Yang said.
“With these variations, we can identify which type of cancer it [the tumor] belongs to,” Yang said.
As NGS is included in NHI coverage, physicians can make more comprehensive clinical decisions, which would significantly improve treatment outcomes and reduce ineffective medication use, Yang added.
NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said two types of data would be collected from the sequencing, one is data directly applicable for clinical purposes by physicians, and the other is raw data stored in National Biobank Consortium of Taiwan for research on drug development and testing methods.
Each individual covered by NHI is entitled to undergo NGS once per cancer type, according to the NHIA’s regulations.
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