Molecular characterization of a selected cohort of patients affected by pulmonary metastases of malignant melanoma: Hints from BRAF, NRAS and EGFR evaluation

BACKGROUND: Melanoma is highly curable in early stages but holds devastating consequences in advanced phases with a median survival of 6–10 months. Lungs are a common metastasis target, but despite this, limited data are available on the molecular status of pulmonary lesions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 25 patients with surgically resected melanoma lung metastases were screened for BRAF, NRAS, CKIT and EGFR alterations. The results were correlated with time to lung metastasis (TLM), relapse-free survival after metastasectomy (RFS) and overall survival (OS). RESULTS: BRAF or NRAS were mutated in 52% and 20% of cases while CKIT was unaffected. Chromosome 7 polysomy was detected in 47% of cases with 17.5% showing EGFR amplification and concomitant BRAF mutation. NRAS mutated patients developed LM within 5 yrs from primary melanoma with larger lesions compared with BRAF (mean diameter 3.3 ± 2.2cm vs 1.9 ± 1.1cm, p = 0.2). NRAS was also associated with a shorter median RFS and OS after metastasectomy. Moreover, Cox regression analysis revealed that NRAS mutation was the only predictive factor of shorter survival from primary melanoma (p = 0.039, OR = 5.5 (1.1–27.6)). CONCLUSIONS: Molecular characterization identifies advanced melanoma subgroups with distinct prognosis and therapeutic options. The presence of NRAS mutation was associated to a worse disease evolution.