Circulating DNA - predicting survival in patients with resected Stage II/III melanoma

Wouldn't if be wonderful if a simple blood test could tell us if we have melanoma, what type of melanoma, and quantify the "amount" of melanoma...thereby giving us specific reports about whether our disease status is progressing, resolving, or stable?  Just think, with a test like that, we could quickly determine if we are responding to a particular therapy....or not!

I have posted data on this topic many times!  This link will take you to my last post and includes many more within:  ASCO 2017: Circulating DNA to measure response in melanoma

Now there's this:  

Circulating tumor DNA predicts survival in patients with resected high risk stage II/III melanoma. Lee, Gremel, Marshal, et al.  Ann Oncol. 2017 Nov 3.

Patients with high-risk stage II/III resected melanoma commonly develop distant metastases. At present, we cannot differentiate between patients who will recur or those who are cured by surgery. We investigated if circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) can predict relapse and survival in patients with resected melanoma.

We performed droplet digital polymerase chain reaction to detect BRAF and NRAS mutations in plasma taken after surgery from 161 stage II/III high-risk melanoma patients enrolled in the AVAST-M adjuvant trial.

Mutant BRAF or NRAS ctDNA was detected (greater than/= to 1 copy of mutant ctDNA) in 15/132 (11%) BRAF mutant patient samples and 4/29 (14%) NRAS mutant patient samples. Patients with detectable ctDNA had a decreased disease-free interval and distant metastasis-free interval versus those with undetectable ctDNA. Detectable ctDNA remained a significant predictor after adjustment for performance status (PS) and disease stage. Five year overall survival (OS) rate for patients with detectable ctDNA was 33% versus 65% for those with undetectable ctDNA. OS was significantly worse for patients with detectable ctDNA and remained significant after adjustment for PS.

CtDNA predicts for relapse and survival in high-risk resected melanoma and could aid selection of patients for adjuvant therapy.

Soon!!  I hope, soon...this test (or something like it) will be refined and readily available for melanoma patients of all stages!!! - c