Liquid Profiling of Circulating Tumor DNA in Plasma of Melanoma Patients for Companion Diagnostics and Monitoring of BRAF Inhibitor Therapy.

Background: The current standard for determining eligibility of patients with metastatic melanoma for BRAF-targeted therapy is tissue-based testing of mutations. As patients are rarely rebiopsied, detection in blood might be advantageous by enabling a comprehensive assessment of tumor mutational status in real time and thereby representing a noninvasive biomarker for monitoring BRAF therapy.

Methods: In all, 634 stage I to IV melanoma patients were enrolled at 2 centers, and 1406 plasma samples were prospectively collected.

Detection of Chlamydophila pneumoniae in the bone marrow of two patients with unexplained chronic anaemia.

Anaemia of chronic disease (ACD) is a common finding involving iron deficiency and signs of inflammation. Here, we report on two patients with ACD where a persistent infection with Chlamydophila (Chlamydia) pneumoniae (CP) was detected in bone marrow (BM) biopsies. Infection was suspected by routine cytology and confirmed by immunofluorescence, electron microscopy, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) including different primer sets and laboratories and sequencing of the PCR product.