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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Dec 1.
Published in final edited form as: Nat Rev Genet. 2022 Aug 11;23(12):760–771. doi: 10.1038/s41576-022-00521-5

Figure 1. Oncogene amplification on ecDNA is a frequent event in cancer and promotes tumour heterogeneity.

Figure 1.

a | The frequency of extrachromosomal DNA (ecDNA) amplification across newly diagnosed cancer7–10. b | EcDNA elements are replicated in S-phase and due to the absence of centromeres, segregate unevenly to daughter cells during mitosis. Clonal selection of tumour cells with an ecDNA-endowed proliferative advantage enables rapid intercellular diversification of ecDNA copy number and increases intratumoral heterogeneity.