Minimizing Sample Failure Rates for Clinical Tumor Samples

This technical report investigates the efficacy of stem-loop inhibition mediated amplification (SLIMamp) technology in reducing sample quality control (QC) failure rates in clinical tumor testing. The study focuses on the oncoReveal Solid Tumor Panel developed by Pillar Biosciences, which is designed for high-throughput sequencing of challenging formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue samples. The research involved 48 samples that had previously failed QC metrics for whole-exome sequencing. The samples were analyzed in an ISO15189-accredited laboratory, where clinical reports were generated for 37 samples, revealing 29 samples with clinically actionable variants. The report also discusses the development of a novel post-sequencing QC metric to differentiate between reportable and unreportable samples. The findings suggest that SLIMamp technology may significantly enhance the QC pass rate for difficult clinical samples, thereby improving the reliability of genomic testing in oncology.