The pan-cancer assay uses a next-generation sequencing (NGS) panel of 679 genes derived from global databases in partnership with clinical cancer researchers. The biomarkers include key classes of somatic variants such as SNVs, CNVs, indels, translocations, and de novo gene fusions, as well as immune-oncology biomarkers such as tumor mutational burden (TMB) and microsatellite instability (MSI).

In addition, the SureSelect Cancer CGP Assay supports input as low as 10 ng. Its workflow incorporates walkaway automation and flexible data analysis options, including Alissa Interpret for tertiary analysis and reporting, customer bioinformatics pipelines, and third-party software, Agilent said.

In a statement, Agilent said that the assay's workflow was designed to make tumor molecular profiling more accessible to the clinical research community.

The assay leverages SureSelect chemistry "that can accommodate a low amount of starting material so that scientists can profile more quantity-limited samples," Ronda Allen, PhD, vice president and general manager, Genomics Division at Agilent, said in a statement. "Library preparation and target enrichment can be automated either on the benchtop Magnis NGS prep system, which will markedly improve workflow efficiency, reducing the hands-on time from hours to only 15 minutes, or on the Bravo NGS workstation, for scaling up to 96 samples per run."