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Is there limitation of cfDNA amout in the NGS based gene testing? 


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The amount of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) available for Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) can be a limiting factor in gene testing. However, advancements in technology, such as Adaptor Template Oligo Mediated Sequencing (ATOM-Seq), have shown the ability to detect known mutations at very low allele frequencies using minimal DNA amounts. Additionally, the use of highly sensitive NGS technologies for analyzing cfDNA has emerged as a valuable alternative when tumor tissue is inadequate for biomarker analysis in lung cancer patients. Despite these advancements, challenges with distinguishing circulating tumor DNA from NGS artifacts persist, with early PCR errors being a principal source of noise in NGS data. Therefore, while limitations exist, innovative approaches and technologies are continuously improving the efficiency and accuracy of NGS-based gene testing using cfDNA.

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Yes, limitations exist due to errors in NGS of circulating cell-free DNA, impacting variant searches to known solid tumor mutations, necessitating sample duplicates for noise reduction and broader ctDNA applications.
Yes, the paper highlights limitations of cfDNA amount in NGS-based gene testing for NSCLC, emphasizing the challenges and advantages of utilizing this approach for molecular profiling.
Not addressed in the paper.
ATOM-Seq technology allows detection of SNVs at 0.1% allele frequency using as little as 20 ng of cfDNA, demonstrating high sensitivity with minimal input material limitations in NGS-based gene testing.

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