Table 4.

Comparison of published studies on cfDNA in HCC patients using targeted sequencing

Reference	Stage of HCC	Sample	Genes	Median coverage (range)	Claimed analytical sensitivity	Most common altered gene	Detection of ≥1 somatic variants in cfDNA (%)	Median variant allele frequency (%)
Howell, et al., 2019 [23]	early (39%) and advanced (61%) HCC	N= 51	8	486x (IQR: 234x–797x)	NA	ARID1A	35	11.9 (IQR: 5–42.3)
		(8 with paired tumor biopsy)
Kaseb, et al., 2019 [22]	advanced HCC	N= 206	54–70	NA	0.1% LoD	TP53	NA (detection of ≥ 1 alterations in cfDNA: 87.8)	0.49 (range, 0.06–55.03)
Ng, et al., 2018 [25]	early (67%) and advanced (33%) HCC	N= 30	46	1,239x (703x–3,244x)	0.1% LoD	TP53	63	13.7 (range, 0.06–44.9)
		(with paired tumor biopsy)
Present study	advanced HCC	N= 20	3	63,482x (44,765x–81,672x)	0.1% LoD	TP53	65	0.13 (range, 0.06–6.99)

Abbreviations: cfDNA, cell-free DNA; HCC, hepatocellular carcinoma; NA, not available; LoD, limit of detection; IQR, interquartile range.