Therapeutic Implications of Detecting MAPK-Activating Alterations in Cutaneous and Unknown Primary Melanomas.

Publication/Presentation Date

4-15-2021

Abstract

PURPOSE: Cutaneous and unknown primary melanomas frequently harbor alterations that activate the MAPK pathway. Whether MAPK driver detection beyond BRAF V600 is clinically relevant in the checkpoint inhibitor era is unknown.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: Patients with melanoma were prospectively offered tumor sequencing of 341-468 genes. Oncogenic alterations in 28 RTK-RAS-MAPK pathway genes were used to construct MAPK driver groups. Time to treatment failure (TTF) was determined for patients who received first-line programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) monotherapy, nivolumab plus ipilimumab, or subsequent genomically matched targeted therapies. A Cox proportional hazards model was constructed for TTF using driver group and clinical variables.

RESULTS: A total of 670 of 696 sequenced melanomas (96%) harbored an oncogenic RTK-RAS-MAPK pathway alteration; 33% had ≥1 driver. Nine driver groups varied by clinical presentation and mutational burden. TTF of PD-1 monotherapy (

CONCLUSIONS: Targeted capture multigene sequencing can detect oncogenic RTK-RAS-MAPK pathway alterations in almost all cutaneous and unknown primary melanomas. TTF of PD-1 monotherapy varies by mechanism of ERK activation. Oncogenic kinase fusions can be successfully targeted in immune checkpoint inhibitor-refractory melanoma.

Volume

27

Issue

8

First Page

2226

Last Page

2235

ISSN

1557-3265

Disciplines

Medicine and Health Sciences

PubMedID

33509808

Department(s)

Department of Medicine, Hematology-Medical Oncology Division

Document Type

Article

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