Open AccessPrognostic Clinical and Radiographic Biomarkers for BRAF‐Targeted Therapy in Advanced Melanoma
Author(s) -
Shah Kaustav P.,
Song Haocan,
Ye Fei,
Johnson Douglas B.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
the oncologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.176
H-Index - 164
eISSN - 1549-490X
pISSN - 1083-7159
DOI - 10.1002/onco.13562
Subject(s) - medicine , oncology , targeted therapy , melanoma , metastatic melanoma , radiography , cancer research , cancer , radiology
Agents blocking BRAF and MEK produce robust responses in patients with BRAF V600 ‐mutated melanoma; however, more accurate clinical biomarkers are needed to predict prognosis. To explore this question, we retrospectively studied 158 patients with BRAF ‐mutated melanoma treated with BRAF with or without MEK inhibitors. We found that the number of distinct tumor sites upon initiation of targeted therapy was associated with decreased progression‐free survival but had no effect on overall survival. Serum values of lactate dehydrogenase and absolute lymphocyte count to absolute neutrophil count ratio independently had the strongest association with both progression‐free survival and overall survival. Using both of these markers can help stratify prognosis of patients with metastatic melanoma receiving targeted therapy.