BRAF mutation V600 in tumor cells - a factor of adverse course of melanoma skin?

Background. To investigate the role of BRAF mutation in the prognosis of skin melanoma. Patients and methods. 114 patients with skin melanoma in a stage of progression after previous surgical treatment were included in the study. Depending on the results of a molecular genetic test for the presence of a BRAF mutant, the patients were divided into 2 groups - with the mutant gene and the wild type. All patients had noted by time to progression of the disease since the initial treatment of the skin melanoma. By using a statistical program, we studied the factors that influenced on time to progression, and the role of the BRAF gene mutation on relapse-free period. Results. There was no significant effect of BRAF V600-mutant on the duration of the relapse-free period in skin melanoma patients and on the nature of the first recurrence of the disease. At the same time, the study found out that the mutation in the BRAF gene was more characteristic to the younger age group - patients under the age of 50 years (p = 0.002). Conclusions. The frequency of BRAF V600-mutant was 67.5% of cases. The absence of the effect in BRAF V600 mutation-positive melanoma was confirmed by stratification according to the stages of the disease, and it was also shown that the mutation did not significantly affect the nature of disease progression. The results of our study did not provide grounds to consider the BRAF mutant melanoma to be a predictive factor in association with aggressiveness of the skin melanoma.

melanoma skin, BRAF mutation