Clinical utility of molecular residual disease detection in early-stage resected EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer

Molecular residual disease (MRD), detected through circulating tumor DNA, has emerged as a promising biomarker for surveillance in patients with early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) following curative-intent resection. Here we report the MRD analysis from the phase 3 EVIDENCE trial, which includes patients with stage II–IIIA resected EGFR-mutated NSCLC who have received either adjuvant icotinib or chemotherapy. A total of 1,352 plasma samples from 175 patients are analyzed using the MinerVa Prime assay, a personalized tumor-informed MRD platform. At the landmark timepoint, MinerVa Prime detects MRD positivity in 35.8% (38/106) of patients with stage III disease and 14.7% (10/68) of patients with stage II disease, with a longitudinal positivity rate of 47.4%. MRD-positive status is significantly correlated with inferior disease-free survival (DFS), both at landmark (hazard ratio HR: 4.44, P < 0.001) and during longitudinal monitoring (HR: 7.82, P < 0.001). Icotinib confers DFS benefits over chemotherapy in both MRD subgroups, enhancing MRD clearance in MRD-positive patients while reducing molecular recurrence in landmark MRD-negative patients. Longitudinal MRD shows a 91.3% negative predictive value, with a median lead time of 169 days prior to clinical recurrence. Among serial monitoring timepoints, MRD status at 24 weeks post-randomization demonstrates the highest prognostic value. For patients with resected EGFR-mutated lung cancer, effective strategies to guide post-surgical surveillance remain an unmet need. Here, the author shows that a personalized blood test may indicate molecular residual disease months before radiological progression.