Intra- and inter-tumoral homogeneity of BRAF V600E mutations in melanoma tumors

Abstract

The era of targeted therapy has introduced a new therapeutic perspective for melanoma patients. Treatment with BRAF V600 inhibitors has improved overall and disease-free survival in metastatic melanoma patients whose tumors harbor BRAF V600 mutations. Although the BRAF V600E mutation appears to have a critical role in tumor initiation, its expression during tumor progression remains controversial. In fact, various authors claim that BRAF V600E heterogeneity is evident in melanoma tumors. Herein, we investigated the pattern of BRAF V600E expression in matched primary and metastatic samples from 140 patients. Using a combination of real-time PCR and immunohistochemical analyses, we demonstrated that BRAF V600E expression is homogeneous in melanoma tumors and hypothesized that the heterogeneity described by others might be attributable to technical issues when molecular methods are used. We also demonstrated the high efficiency of the anti-BRAF V600E VE1 antibody for the detection of BRAF V600E mutations in melanoma tumors.