Figure 7.

Summary of metastatic models in this study seeding patterns for polyphyletic and monophyletic cases were illustrated. Red cells refer to tumour clones acquired additional driver mutations during the growth of the primary tumour. For clone evolution, different colours were labelled for liver or lung branch if metastases origin from advanced tumour clones with additional driver mutations. Three metastatic models were concluded eventually, including the branch-off model (lung metastasis originated from primary tumour, polyphyletic seeding), the sequential model (lung metastasis originated from liver metastasis, monophyletic seeding), and the diaspora model (lung metastasis originated from primary tumour, monophyletic seeding). Clonal metastatic potential was inferred based on the time elapsed from primary surgery to metastasis diagnosis. Intermetastatic heterogeneity refers to the probability of driver gene heterogeneity among liver and lung metastasis.