Monitoring melanoma recurrence with circulating tumor DNA: a proof of concept from three case studies.

Background: A significant number of melanoma patients experience recurrence to distant sites, despite having had surgical treatment of the primary lesion, with curative intent. Monitoring of patients for early evidence of disease recurrence would significantly improve management of the disease, allowing timely therapeutic intervention. Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is becoming a well-recognized biomarker for monitoring malignancies and has, in a few studies, been shown to signify disease recurrence earlier than conventional methods.

A diagnostic autoantibody signature for primary cutaneous melanoma.

Melanoma is an aggressive form of skin cancer that is curable by surgical excision in the majority of cases, if detected at an early stage. To improve early stage melanoma detection, the development of a highly sensitive diagnostic test is of utmost importance. Here we aimed to identify antibodies to a panel of tumour associated antigens that can differentiate primary melanoma patients and healthy individuals.

Droplet Digital PCR for Mutation Detection in Formalin-Fixed, Paraffin-Embedded Melanoma Tissues: A Comparison with Sanger Sequencing and Pyrosequencing.

The identification of somatic mutations is crucial for guiding therapeutic decisions about personalized melanoma treatment. However, genetic analysis of tumors is usually performed on limited and often low-quality DNA from tumors with low tumor cellularity and high tumor heterogeneity. Different mutation-detection platforms exist, with varying analytical sensitivities.

Segmentation of Skin Tumors in High-Frequency 3-D Ultrasound Images.

High-frequency 3-D ultrasound imaging is an informative tool for diagnosis, surgery planning and skin lesion examination. The purpose of this article was to describe a semi-automated segmentation tool providing easy access to the extent, shape and volume of a lesion. We propose an adaptive log-likelihood level-set segmentation procedure using non-parametric estimates of the intensity distribution.

Circulating Melanoma Cell Subpopulations: Their Heterogeneity and Differential Responses to Treatment.

Metastatic melanoma is a highly heterogeneous tumor; thus, methods to analyze tumor-derived cells circulating in blood should address this diversity. Taking this into account, we analyzed, using multiparametric flow cytometry, the co-expression of the melanoma markers melanoma cell adhesion molecule and melanoma-associated chondroitin sulphate proteoglycan and the tumor-initiating markers ATP-binding cassette sub-family B member 5 (ABCB5), CD271, and receptor activator of NF-κβ (RANK) in individual circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from 40 late-stage (III-IV) and 16 early-stage (I-II) melanoma patients. CTCs were heterogeneous within and between patients, with limited co-expression between the five markers analyzed.