Fig 1. Diagnostic power of cfDNA in metastatic colorectal cancer patients and its changes under palliative treatment.
(A) Therapy naïve patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (CRC) show significantly higher cfDNA concentration than healthy controls (Mann-Whitney, p<0.0001). (B) Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) of cfDNA level as a test parameter to discriminate patients with metastatic CRC from healthy controls. (C) CfDNA levels over the time course of therapy in 1st, 2nd and 3rd line treatment. The amount of cfDNA increases at time-point of progression in 1st and 2nd line (Mann-Whitney, p<0.01, p<0.05, respectively). CI = confidence interval, LR = likelihood ratio, PPV = positive predictive value, NPV = negative predictive value. Level of significance: * = p<0.05, ** = p<0.01, *** = p<0.001, **** = p<0.0001.