Clinical impact on ovarian cancer patients of massive parallel sequencing for BRCA mutation detection: the experience at Gemelli hospital and a literature review.

Massive parallel sequencing (MPS) is the new frontier for molecular diagnostics. Twenty-four papers regarding BRCA analysis were considered for reviewing all pipelines evaluated in this field.,Proposed here is an integrated MPS workflow able to successfully identify BRCA1/2 mutational status on 212 Italian ovarian cancer patients. The review of literature data is reported.,The pipeline can be routinely used as robust molecular diagnostic strategy, being highly sensitive and specific.,Literature data report that efforts are being made in order to fully translate MPS-based BRCA1/2 gene assay into routine clinical diagnostics. However, this study highlights the need of an integrated MPS BRCA1/2 molecular workflow fulfilling the standardized requirements needed in the routine clinical laboratory practice.