Integrative Genomic Analyses of Patient-Matched Intracranial and Extracranial Metastases Reveal a Novel Brain-Specific Landscape of Genetic Variants in Driver Genes of Malignant Melanoma.

Background: Development of brain metastases in advanced melanoma patients is a frequent event that limits patients' quality of life and survival. Despite recent insights into melanoma genetics, systematic analyses of genetic alterations in melanoma brain metastasis formation are lacking. Moreover, whether brain metastases harbor distinct genetic alterations beyond those observed at different anatomic sites of the same patient remains unknown.