J Cancer 2020; 11(12):3543-3550. doi:10.7150/jca.43729 This issue Cite
Research Paper
1. Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute and Hospital; National Clinical Research Center for Cancer; Tianjin Key Laboratory of Cancer Prevention and Therapy; Tianjin's Clinical Research Center for Cancer, Tianjin, China
2. Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics (Phase I Clinical Trials Program), the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA
3. Bio-Rad Laboratories, Pleasanton, California, USA
4. Tianjin Key Laboratory of Cellular Homeostasis and Human Diseases, School of Basic Medical Science, Tianjin Medical University; Department of Physiology and Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medical Science, Tianjin Medical University, Heping, Tianjin, 300070, China
*These authors contribute equally to this work.
Purpose: To evaluate the detection of gene mutations in bone marrow biopsy and circulating free DNA (cfDNA) from plasma in multiple myeloma (MM).
Experimental design: We used cell-free DNA from plasma and bone marrow to test BRAF V600, KRAS G12/G13, NRAS G12/G13 and NRAS Q61 mutations using multiplex assays for droplet digital PCR (ddPCR), and evaluated results with clinical outcomes.
Results: We found of 83 patients, the detectable mutation frequencies for the above four genes were 4 (5%), 13 (16%), 3 (4%) and 14 (17%) in bone marrow, respectively. The median variant allelic frequency (VAF) in most mutations were 1.595%. In 17 paired cfDNA samples, the detectable mutation frequencies for the above four genes were 5 (30%), 1 (6%), 0 (0%) and 3 (18%) respectively, and the median VAF rate was 2.9%. Agreement between bone marrow DNA and plasma cfDNA were 76%, 100%, 100% and 100% compared to the tissue detections, respectively. In 17 patients with paired bone marrow and plasma samples, the above four mutations were 3 (18%), 1 (6%), 0 (0%) and 2 (12%) respectively, with the agreement rates of 88%, 88%, 100% and 100% compared to tissue detections. Of 57 patients with available outcome data, high mutation VAF had a shorter median survival than patients with low mutation VAF (P=0.0322).
Conclusions: Oncogenic mutations in BRAF, KRAS and NRAS genes can be detected in the bone marrow and plasma cfDNA with ddPCR in patients with MM patients and high VAF is associated with short survival.
Keywords: multiple myeloma, RAS mutations, ddPCR