Clinical cancer genomics: how soon is now?

Germline and somatic alterations in DNA mediate the genesis and progression of human cancers. Not only do these events represent the molecular underpinnings of disease but many are of immense clinical importance as diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets. In fact, rapidly evolving sequencing technologies have empowered enormous growth in the breadth and depth of cancer genome characterization. Whether these will impact routine clinical practice and the treatment of disease is no longer debatable, but how precisely this will happen is a source of ongoing speculation and development. Copyright (C) 2010 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.