Younger age at the time of first metastasis in BRAF-mutated compared to BRAF wild-type melanoma patients

The relationship between BRAF mutations and the patient clinical profile is still under question. The objective of the present study was to correlate the BRAF mutation status in primary and metastatic melanomas with the clinicopathological profile, disease-free (DFS) and overall survival (OS). A total of 367 melanoma samples from 278 patients were screened for their BRAF status using a combination of allele-specific amplification and DNA sequencing. Two or three tissue samples from the same patient were available for 74 patients. The clinicopathological characteristics were tested for their association with the BRAF mutation using the Fisher's or Pearson's chi(2) test. Log-rank tests and Cox models were used for survival analyses. BRAF mutation was found in 152 samples (41.4%). Ten of the 74 patients with several tissue samples (13.5%) had discordant BRAF mutation results. BRAF-mutated patients were significantly younger at the time of primary melanoma and first diagnosis of metastasis than BRAF wild-type patients but with no difference in DFS and OS. According to our results, a primary melanoma with BRAF mutation is not associated with a more aggressive illness.