ArticleBMC cancer2019
Dynamic and unpredictable changes in mutant allele fractions of BRAF and NRAS during visceral progression of cutaneous malignant melanoma.
Article in BMC cancer, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 23 citations in OpenAlex.
- Role of Surgery in Metastatic Melanoma and Review of Melanoma Molecular Characteristics.Cells · 2024Pooled it
- Thinking beyond immunotherapy: implementing a multimodal care plan to facilitate extended survival in stage IV melanoma.Melanoma research · 2026Article
- High BRAF variant allele frequency predicts poor outcomes in metastatic melanoma patients treated with BRAF/MEK inhibitors.Journal of translational medicine · 2025Article
- Distant metastases of melanoma exhibit varying extent of intrapatient proteogenomic heterogeneity.Clinical and translational medicine · 2025Article
- Review
- Melanoma in Peru: 1000 patients and 10 years of experience.PloS one · 2025Article
- Identification of genetic fingerprint of type I interferon therapy in visceral metastases of melanoma.Scientific reports · 2024Article
- The Driverless Triple-Wild-Type (BRAF, RAS, KIT) Cutaneous Melanoma: Whole Genome Sequencing Discoveries.Cancers · 2023Article
- Molecular Pathology of Skin Melanoma: Epidemiology, Differential Diagnostics, Prognosis and Therapy Prediction.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- Genomic and Transcriptomic Underpinnings of Melanoma Genesis, Progression, and Metastasis.Cancers · 2021Review
- A twelve-gene signature for survival prediction in malignant melanoma patients.Annals of translational medicine · 2020Article
- KIT Mutation Incidence and Pattern of Melanoma in Central Europe.Pathology oncology research : POR · 2020Article
- Article
- Correction to: Dynamic and unpredictable changes in mutant allele fractions of BRAF and NRAS during visceral progression of cutaneous malignant melanoma.BMC cancer · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundData indicate that primary cutaneous melanomas are characterized by clonal heterogeneity associated with oncogenic drivers. Less data are available on the clonal changes occurring during melanoma progression. We therefore wished to analyse these changes in skin melanomas in common sites of visceral metastases as compared to the primary tumor.
methodsAn autopsy cohort of 50 patients with BRAF- and NRAS-mutant cutaneous metastatic melanomas including 139 visceral metastases was analysed for mutant allele fractions (MAF), determined by pyrosequencing and corrected for tumor/normal ratio. MAF levels were also classified as high (> 40%), medium (15-40%) or low (< 15%).
resultsContrary to NRAS mutant cases, in BRAF-mutant melanomas MAFs were found to be significantly increased in visceral metastases compared to the primary due to the significantly higher levels in lung-, adrenal gland-, intestinal- and kidney metastases. The incidence of the three MAF variants in BRAF-mutant primaries was similar, whereas the high MAF cases were found to be increased in metastases. On the other hand, medium MAF levels were more common in case of NRAS-mutant tumors. Only 31.3% of BRAF mutant- and 50% of NRAS mutant cases maintained the MAF profile of the primary in metastasis. In the majority of multiple metastatic tumors, (BRAF:71.8%, NRAS:75%) metastases were relatively homogeneous regarding MAF. However, in 6/32(18.7%) of BRAF mutant cases low MAF primaries switched to high MAF in metastases. In heterogeneous BRAF mutant metastatic cases low to high or high to low MAF conversions occurred in a further 4/32(12.5%) cases in individual metastases as compared to the primary tumors. At lower frequency, in NRAS mutant tumor such changes also observed (2/12,16.7%).
conclusionWe provided evidence for the selection of BRAF-mutant melanoma cells during metastatic progression to the lung, intestine, adrenal gland and kidney. Our findings suggest that in visceral metastases of malignant melanoma BRAF- or NRAS-MAFs are rather heterogeneous and cannot be predicted from data of the primary tumor. These data may have clinical significance when using targeted therapies.
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