BACKGROUND: Implementation of adjuvant therapies in non-metastatic melanoma improved treatment outcomes in some patients; however, adjuvant therapy can be associated with significant cost and risk of toxicity. Therefore, there is an unmet need to better identify patients at high risk of recurrence. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We carried out an ultrasensitive droplet digital PCR (ddPCR)-based detection of BRAFV600E-mutated circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from blood samples prospectively collected before surgery, 1 hour after surgery, and then serially during follow-up. RESULTS: In 80 patients (stages ≤III), BRAFV600E mutations were detected in 47.2% of tissue, in 37.7% of ctDNA samples collected before surgery, and in 25.9% of ctDNA samples collected 1 hour after surgery. Patients with detected ctDNA in blood collected 1 hour after surgery compared to patients without detected ctDNA had higher likelihood of melanoma recurrence (P < 0.001) and shorter median disease-free survival (P = 0.001) and overall survival (P = 0.003). CONCLUSIONS: Ultrasensitive ddPCR can detect ctDNA in pre- and post-surgical blood samples from patients with resectable melanoma. Detection of ctDNA in post-surgical samples is associated with inferior treatment outcomes.

• MeSH
• cirkulující nádorová DNA * genetika   MeSH
• lidé MeSH
• melanom * genetika   MeSH
• mutace * MeSH
• polymerázová řetězová reakce MeSH
• protoonkogenní proteiny B-raf * genetika   MeSH
• Check Tag
• lidé MeSH
• Publikační typ
• časopisecké články MeSH
• práce podpořená grantem MeSH
• Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural MeSH