BRAF Mutation Analysis in Primary Acral Melanoma of ۴۱ Cases from South of Iran

Background & Objective: Acral melanoma (AM) is a common type of cutaneous melanoma that occurs in the skin of the palms, soles, and nail beds. This malignancy, like other types of cancer, has different genetic alterations. To date, despite decades of research the roles of oncogenic BRAF mutations in the pathogenesis of AM has not been fully clarified. The present study was designed to identify V۶۰۰E mutation in patients with AM from the south of Iran. Methods: The samples were collected from the pathology lab archive of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences (۲۰۱۵-۲۰۲۰). A total of ۴۱ patients with primary invasive AM underwent excisional biopsy or amputation were collected to evaluate BRAF V۶۰۰E mutation using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Sanger sequencing.Results: Total number of ۴۱cases (۲۱ male and ۲۰ female) and age range of ۳۴-۸۷ years were enrolled. The histological subtypes were ۲۴ acral lentiginous melanomas (ALM), ۱۰ cases of nodular melanoma (NM), and ۷ cases of superficial spreading melanoma (SSM). In our study, only one case (a ۴۴-year-old male with nail bed AM and the histological subtype of acral lentigenous melanoma) showed BRAF-V۶۰۰E mutation. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the population of our interest showed a very low prevalence of this mutation providing novel insights into the pathobiology of AM and its related treatment.