There is a moment that many patients and families know too well. It often starts with uncertainty, followed by a series of appointments, blood draws, and test results that feel incomplete. Each step promises clarity but rarely delivers a full explanation. Instead, it adds time, cost, and emotional strain.
A sample is taken. Then another. Weeks pass. A result comes back, but it only answers part of the question. Another test is ordered. The cycle repeats. Each step feels necessary, yet the path forward remains unclear.
For patients, this is more than a workflow. It is a growing sense of urgency mixed with fatigue. And for labs and care teams, this system functions, but with inefficiencies that carry real impact and steadily accumulate cost.
What if the journey could start differently? Luckily, SPRQ-Nx enables a single genomic workflow to help reduce costs in cancer detection techniques.
The operational and human cost of multi-assay cancer testing
Today’s cancer detection workflows often rely on a stack of specialized assays. Each one is designed to answer a specific question, but together they create a fragmented process.
A typical workflow may include cytogenetics, multiple FISH panels, chromosomal microarray, RNA fusion testing, targeted DNA panels, pharmacogenomics, and HLA typing. While these tests can often be collected in a single visit, they require multiple tubes, multiple workflows, and multiple handoffs within the lab. For people, that can mean repeat visits, repeated collections, and a process that feels increasingly draining over time.
This complexity carries a real cost. Financially, the combined price of these tests can reach between $15,000-$20,000 per person. Operationally, turnaround times stretch from two to six weeks as results are generated sequentially or across different platforms.
There is also a hidden toll. Each additional assay introduces opportunities for delay, repeat testing, or inconclusive findings. Lab teams manage a growing portfolio of methods, validations, and workflows. People wait longer for explanations that may still feel incomplete.
While it’s not a failure of any single test, it is the cumulative effect of needing many tests to see the full picture.
Replacing fragmented testing with a single HiFi genomic workflow
Highly accurate whole genome sequencing offers a different starting point. With a single long-read sequencing workflow, many of the assays in a traditional stack can be consolidated into a single approach to generate a comprehensive view from the beginning.
What once required multiple technologies can now be captured in a single dataset. Traditional methods like karyotyping and chromosomal microarray are used to detect large chromosomal changes and copy number variation, such as whole chromosome gains or losses seen in trisomy 21, while FISH panels target specific, known rearrangements, like like BCR-ABL1 that drives most Chronic Myeloid Leukemia cases. HiFi sequencing brings these capabilities together by detecting copy number changes, balanced and unbalanced translocations, and structural variants at base pair resolution, without needing to predefine targets.
At the same time, targeted DNA panels and pharmacogenomic tests focus on a limited set of genes or variants, such as TPMT or NUDT15 for drug response, whereas HiFi sequencing enables genome-wide detection of single nucleotide variants, indels, and variation in complex or repetitive regions that are often missed.
Even specialized assays can be addressed within the same framework. RNA fusion panels are typically used to confirm known gene fusions, but long reads can resolve fusion breakpoints directly at the DNA level and uncover more complex or unexpected events. Similarly, regions like HLA, which are difficult to resolve with traditional approaches, can be fully phased and typed with higher resolution. The result is not just fewer tests, but a more complete and connected view of the genome from the start.
The impact of consolidation on cost and time
The impact is measurable. Research use costs could be lowered to around $1,700 per sample with a turnaround time closer to one week. By replacing multiple assays with a single workflow, labs can reduce the number of steps, handoffs, and dependencies that often slow progress and introduce variability.
Operationally, fewer assays mean less complexity to manage. Labs can reduce the burden of maintaining multiple methods, training across platforms, and coordinating sample movement between workflows. This can help improve consistency, reduce opportunities for error, and create a more predictable and scalable testing model.
This also changes how time is experienced across the process. Instead of waiting for results to come back in sequence or across different platforms, a single HiFi dataset provides a more complete picture upfront. That reduces the need for reflex testing and shortens the path from initial question to actionable insight.
How SPRQ-Nx enables cost savings through assay consolidation on Revio
For this approach to work in practice, it has to align with how labs operate today while improving cost efficiency. SPRQ-Nx chemistry on the Revio system was designed with this in mind. It enables a SMRT Cell to be used multiple times, lowering the sequencing cost per acquisition while maintaining consistent performance.
This shift directly lowers cost per genome to ~$345 when running two genomes per SMRT Cell at scale. For higher coverage applications, a single 40x genome can be generated at about $690 per acquisition.
The consumable pricing reflects this improvement. A SPRQ-Nx 24-pack of reagents is priced at $16,560, or $690 per acquisition. This represents a meaningful reduction compared to the current SPRQ chemistry, priced at $23,880, or $995 per acquisition.
Just as important, the workflow remains familiar. There are no changes to sample prep, library prep, or automation, and the system handles the process of preparing the SMRT Cell for reuse without manual intervention. Input requirements stay consistent at as low as 500 ng.
The result is a model that supports assay consolidation without adding complexity and reducing steps, delays, and the path to answers.
A more sustainable path for patients and labs
Assay consolidation is not only about efficiency. It changes how the experience can feel for people, clinicians, and labs. Fewer tests mean fewer steps, fewer delays, and fewer points where uncertainty can grow.
For people, that can mean fewer procedures and less time spent waiting for explanations. For clinicians, it offers a clearer starting point with more complete information. For labs and health systems, it creates a more predictable and sustainable model.
The goal is simple. Start with a test that provides a more complete picture so fewer additional steps are needed. As sequencing continues to evolve, this approach has the potential to shorten the path from uncertainty to understanding and reduce the emotional and financial weight that often comes with it.
To learn more about SPRQ-Nx chemistry and cancer testing with HiFi, visit the Revio and oncology research webpages.