Vhvt: An Ultra-Sensitive Somatic Mutation Detection And Performance Assessment Program

1588Background: NGS as a high throughput technique is particular valuable for cancer given its ability to detect multiple driver mutations. While reads contain SNVs and short InDels can be mapped to the right position using gatk-like programs, a program designed for germline mutation detection, reads contain long InDels such as EGFR EX19 deletions often wrongly mapped especially when deletions near the ends of the reads. Thus, gatk would not recognize these reads, consequently underestimate the mutation allelic frequency, and even missed out InDels when supporting reads were rare. Methods: Here we present a variation hotspot validation toolkit (VHVT), a validation based method to precisely detect the ultra-low frequency somatic mutations. As far as we know, it is the first specialized somatic mutation detection software. First, reference sequences aimed at the hotspot mutations were assembled, then reads were be mapped to the new assembled reference to precisely distinguish the supporting reads. Moreover,...