Overview
- Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences formally launched the Cancer Genomics Centre on May 30, 2026, becoming the first government hospital in Telangana to offer Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) diagnostics.
- The centre was established under the Department of Health Research–ICMR Advanced Molecular Oncology Diagnostic Services (DIAMOnDS) project and is one of about 25 selected sites nationwide and the designated hub for Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
- The laboratory offers a suite of molecular tests—NGS, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), digital droplet PCR (ddPCR), fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) and immunohistochemistry (IHC)—to characterise DNA and RNA changes that inform diagnosis and targeted therapy.
- Those tests are provided free to eligible needy patients, and NIMS reports that 1,443 cancer patients have already benefited from its DIAMOnDS services since 2024, including 784 lung and 659 breast cancer cases.
- By bringing NGS into the public sector, NIMS aims to lower cost barriers and speed personalised treatment decisions for patients regionally, and the institute says it plans to add more cancer‑specific NGS panels and work toward liquid biopsy testing.