Predictive Utility of Circulating Methylated DNA in Serum of Melanoma Patients Receiving Biochemotherapy

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Purpose Currently, no validated blood-based assays accurately predict treatment response or outcome in melanoma patients. We hypothesized that methylation of tumor-related genes detected in serum DNA could predict disease outcome and therapeutic response in patients receiving concurrent biochemotherapy (BC) for metastatic melanoma. Patients and Methods American Joint Committee on Cancer stage IV melanoma patients (N = 50) had blood drawn before administration of BC. Patients (n = 47) were classified as BC responders or nonresponders. Responders (n = 23) demonstrated a complete or partial response following BC; nonresponders (n = 24) demonstrated progressive disease. Hypermethylation of Ras association domain family 1 (RASSF1A), retinoic acid receptor-β2 (RAR-β2), and O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) genes were assessed by methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction. Results Circulating methylated RASSF1A was significantly less frequent for responders (three of 23 patients; 13%) than nonres...