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Size of cancer/normal sequence data

I have one tumor/normal WGS data from a breast cancer patient and the tumor bam file is 11.2 GB in size, while the normal bam file is 27.6 GB in size. Isn't this uncommon, considering tumor files are usually larger than normal ones?

next-gen sequencing
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updated by Devon Ryan Devon Ryan • written by Gene_MMP8 Gene_MMP8

1 answer

It's a bit unusual to sequence a normal sample 2.5x as deep as the cancer sample that you're more interested in, yes. It's quite possible that the normal sample was on a different run or machine, where there was more space (and thus more total reads).

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written by Devon Ryan Devon Ryan

So is it advisable to compare normal vs tumor and find the variants for this sample?

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written by Gene_MMP8 Gene_MMP8

Yes. The only alternative is throwing away the data...which is not a terribly good alternative.

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written by Devon Ryan Devon Ryan

Thanks for your reply.

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written by Gene_MMP8 Gene_MMP8

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