Here is a retrospective look at 85 patients receiving circulating tumor (ct)DNA surveillance from 2024–2025 following definitive surgery or ablative radiation for non-small cell lung cancer One in five (n=17) had at least one positive test; notably, 10/17 (59%) subsequently reverted to negative without radiographic recurrence, and 11/17 (65%) had tumor fractions at or near the assay’s limit of detection. In contrast, three of six patients with ctDNA fractions above the limit of detection (0.25%, 0.55%, and >10%) had confirmed recurrence, while none of the 68 ctDNA-negative patients recurred, yielding an overall specificity of 84%. The study found no consistent relationship between transient positivity and timing with therapies or tumor genomic features, underscoring that the biology behind these low-level signals remains poorly understood. | Cho, JTO 2026
