Background: Numerous sequencing techniques have been progressed since the 1960s with the rapid development of molecular biology studies focusing on DNA and RNA.

Methods: A great number of articles, book chapters, websites are reviewed, and the studies covering NGS history, technology and applications to cancer therapy are included in the present article.

Results: High throughput next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies offer many advantages over classical Sanger sequencing with decreasing cost per base and increasing sequencing efficiency. NGS technologies are combined with bioinformatics software to sequence genomes to be used in diagnostics, transcriptomics, epidemiologic and clinical trials in biomedical sciences. NGS technology has also been successfully used in drug discovery for the treatment of different cancers.

Conclusion: This review focuses on current and potential applications of NGS in various stages of drug discovery process, from target identification through to personalized medicine.

背景：自 1960 年代以来，随着以 DNA 和 RNA 为重点的分子生物学研究的快速发展，许多测序技术取得了进展。

方法：回顾了大量的文章、书籍章节、网站，本文收录了涉及 NGS 历史、技术和癌症治疗应用的研究。

结果：高通量下一代测序 (NGS) 技术与经典 Sanger 测序相比具有许多优势，可降低每个碱基的成本并提高测序效率。NGS 技术与生物信息学软件相结合，对基因组进行测序，以用于生物医学科学的诊断、转录组学、流行病学和临床试验。NGS 技术也已成功用于治疗不同癌症的药物发现。

结论：本综述侧重于 NGS 在药物发现过程的各个阶段的当前和潜在应用，从目标识别到个性化医疗。