In operable non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), molecular residual disease (MRD) detection via circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) has emerged as a promising approach to identify individuals at high risk of disease recurrence and potentially guide adjuvant therapy decisions. A prospective observational study conducted at Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, China, aimed to elucidate the role of MRD detection in patients with operable NSCLC harboring oncogenic fusions, MET exon skipping, or de novo MET amplification following surgical resection and explore the association between postoperative MRD mutations and clinical outcomes. The research is published in the journal Frontiers of Medicine .
The study included 49 NSCLC patients who underwent surgery and had next-generation sequencing (NGS)-confirmed oncogenic fusions, MET exon 14 skipping, or de novo MET amplification. After excluding six patients due to lack of perioperative blood samples or loss of follow-up, 43 patients were analyzed. The patients' lung cancer and disease stages were classified according to the World Health Organization criteria and the American Joint Committee on Cancer staging system.
Tumor tissues were obtained via biopsy or surgery, and peripheral blood samples were collected before and/or after surgery and during follow-up. The samples were processed to extract tumor DNA, circulating free DNA (cfDNA), and germline genomic DNA from peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs). Targeted next-generation sequencing w.