BRAF V600E mutation as a prognostic factor in cutaneous melanoma patients

The prognostic significance of BRAF mutations in the natural course of melanoma is controversial. The aim of study was to assess the prognostic significance of BRAF V600E mutation in cutaneous melanoma patients. A total of 151 melanomas were included in the study. BRAF V600E mutation was detected using the real-time PCR. BRAF V600E mutation rate was 51%. BRAF mutation rate was higher for young patients (61.4%) and upper limbs (63.2%), trunk (59.3%) and head and neck (59.2%) were the most frequently afflicted sites in BRAF-mutant patients, whereas lower limbs were mostly affected in BRAF-wild patients (77.8%). Likewise, acral melanomas rarely harbored BRAF mutation (17.1%). The disease-free survivals regarding the entire and Stage III cohorts were longer in the BRAF-mutant group than in the BRAF-wild group (p = .006 and p = .004, respectively), whereas Stage I-II patients had no survival differences between BRAF statuses (p = .2). Likewise, BRAF-mutant patients had better overall survival (OS) time compared to BRAF-wild patients in all stages (p = .01), in Stage III (p = .01), and in Stage IV patients (p = .001). However, no differences between BRAF statuses were observed in Stage I-II melanomas (p = .3). In conclusion, BRAF V600E-mutant melanomas show favorable prognostic impact on both disease-free and OSs in all staged melanomas except local disease.