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Palmieri et al. J Cancer Metastasis Treat 2020;6:55 I http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2394-4722.2020.105 Page 5 of 8

Figure 1. Distribution of the most frequently mutated genes. Among the 38 mutated genes, point mutations in TP53, PIK3CA, KRAS, and
ERBB2 and copy number variation in FGFR3 were the most commonly observed alterations in all 16 tumor types

Figure 2. Second liquid biopsy: number of mutated clones. The histogram shows on the absciss axis the number of mutated clones and
on the ordinate the number of patients. Most patients have two mutated clones at the time of the second liquid biopsy

but only patients with lung cancer had a great number of mutated genes [Table 1].

In accordance with previous data in the literature, our study confirmed that SNVs (small nucleotide
variants) in TP53, PIK3CA, and KRAS, and CNVs (copy number variations) in FGFR3 and ERBB2 are
the most commonly observed mutated genes in breast and lung cancer [9-10] [Figure 1]. However, these
mutations are not only confined to breast and lung cancer but are also found in other types of cancer
without a specific prevalence in distribution [Figure 1].

[5]
In comparison with data from our previous study , showing that at the beginning of tumor expansion
there was a consistent, although variable, mutational burden from tens to hundreds, disease relapse