Detection of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations from preoperative circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as a prognostic predictor for stage I-III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with baseline tissue EGFR mutations

1Department of Thoracic Surgery, Tangdu Hospital, Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, China; 2Department of Thoracic Surgery, Shaanxi Provincial People's Hospital, Xi'an, China; 3The Third Affiliated Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China; 4Department of Ultrasound, Xi'an Central Hospital, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China; 5Department of Oncology, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing, China; 6Department of Neurosurgery, Tangdu Hospital, Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, China; 7Medical Oncology Unit, Department of Human Patology "G. Barresi", University of Messina, Messina, Italy; 8Instituto de Medicina Molecular Joao Lobo Antunes, University of Lisbon Medical School, Lisbon, Portugal; 9GenoMed - Molecular Medicine Diagnostics, S.A., Lisbon, Portugal; 10Precision Medicine Lung Cancer Center, Konkuk University Medical Center, Seoul, Korea; 11Department of Ophthalmology, Tangdu Hospital, Air Force Medical University, Xi'an, China Contributions: (I) Conception and design: X Yan, K Guo; (II) Administrative support: X Li, J Han; (III) Provision of study materials or patients: H Liu, C Shao, Y Feng, M Pan; (IV) Collection and assembly of data: Y Yang, Z Ma; (V) Data analysis and interpretation: K Guo, L Han, M Santarpia,