Circulating tumor DNA detection in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients

Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for 85–90% of lung cancers (1). It has been the most common malignancy and the leading cause of cancer death for decades. Currently, the 5-year overall survival for NSCLC is still lower than 15% worldwide (2). Thus precise detection of gene mutations at an early stage is of great benefit to improve patient treatment. Although the tumor tissue biopsies are the gold standard for mutation detection, some inherent shortcomings still exist in clinical practice, such as the tumor heterogeneity (3,4). Therefore, novel detection methods are urgently needed to characterize circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) mutations