Comparison of BRAF testing techniques in patients with advanced malignant melanoma: a real-life study.

Malignant melanoma (MM) is one of the deadliest skin cancers. BRAF mutation testing plays a predominant role in the management of MM patients, because modern targeted therapies essentially consist of inhibitors of BRAF. BRAF V600 mutation must be detected using a FDA-approved (USA) or CE IVD certified (Europe) test. The aim of this study was to compare BRAF mutational testing performed by conventiona lnucleotide sequencing approaches with either real-time PCR (rtPCR )or next-generation sequencing (NGS) assays in a real-life,hospital-based series of advanced MM patients. Consecutive patients fromSardinia, Italy, with histological diagnosis of advanced MM (AJCC stages III Cand IV) and referred a the laboratory of Biomolecular Chemistry (ICB) of the National Research Council (CNR), Sassari, Italy for molecular testing from 2012 through 2019, were enrolled into the study.