Fig. 5: Early ctDNA dynamics predict response and impact the residual cancer burden (RCB) score distribution.

A Patients across receptor subtypes, hormone receptor (HR)-positive/HER2-negative (HR + HER2-), triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), or HER2-positive (HER2 + ) were stratified by early ctDNA dynamics: persistent ctDNA-negative, ctDNA cleared at week 3 (T1) or week 12 (T2) and no ctDNA clearance at week 12 (T2). The distribution of RCB scores for each group was visualized using density (upper) and box-and-whisker (lower panel) plots. B The density (upper) and box -and-whisker (lower panel) plots show the distribution of the RCB scores in patients across receptor subtypes and the type of treatment received stratified by early ctDNA dynamics. The treatment types included paclitaxel combined with immune checkpoint inhibitors (P + ICI) or HER2-targeted drugs (P + HER2). See Fig. S7 for extended results. The density plots visualize the distribution of continuous values (RCB scores), with peaks showing where the values are concentrated. The total area under each distribution curve is equal to 1. The box-and-whisker plot shows the interquartile range (IQR) of the RCB scores for a given group divided into quartiles, with Q1 (the lower end of the box), Q2 (the median), and Q3 (the upper end of the box). The whiskers from the box represent the data outside the upper and lower quartiles. The p-values for multi-group comparisons (> 2) were calculated using the Kruskal-Wallis (KW) and pairwise comparisons using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test with adjustment for multiple hypotheses testing using the Bonferroni correction.