Figure 3
From: Transient appearance of circulating tumor DNA associated with de novo treatment
Schematic representation of conventional and T-type ctDNAs in the EGFR-TKI treatment.
Yellow cells represent living cancer cells, whereas red cells represent dead cancer cells that release ctDNA. The abundance of conventional ctDNA increase as cancer grows; however, it decreases to undetectable levels upon initiation of the EGFR-TKI treatment, increases again upon disease progression owing to acquiring resistance. In contrast, T-type ctDNA appears upon initiation of EGFR-TKI, then disappears, and does not reappear during the observation period. The absence of reemergence may be due to a complete elimination of this subpopulation by EGFR-TKI treatment, or the subpopulation may persist without producing detectable ctDNA amounts.
