Direct comparison study between droplet digital PCR and a combination of allele-specific PCR, asymmetric rapid PCR and melting curve analysis for the detection of BRAF V600E mutation in plasma from melanoma patients
-
Eleni Tzanikou
, Verena Haselmann , Athina Markou , Angelika Duda , Jochen Utikal , Michael Neumaier und Evi S. Lianidou
Abstract
Background
In metastatic melanoma, 40%–50% of patients harbor a BRAF V600E mutation and are thereby eligible to receive a combined BRAF/MEK inhibitor therapy. Compared to standard-of-care tissue-based genetic testing, analysis of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) from blood enables a comprehensive assessment of tumor mutational status in real-time and can be used for monitoring response to therapy. The aim of our study was to directly compare the performance of two highly sensitive methodologies, droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) and a combination of ARMS/asymmetric-rapid PCR/melting curve analysis, for the detection of BRAF V600E in plasma from melanoma patients.
Methods
Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) was isolated from 120 plasma samples of stage I to IV melanoma patients. Identical plasma-cfDNA samples were subjected to BRAF V600E mutational analysis using in parallel, ddPCR and the combination of ARMS/asymmetric-rapid PCR/melting curve analysis.
Results
BRAF V600E mutation was detected in 9/117 (7.7%) ctDNA samples by ddPCR and in 22/117 (18.8%) ctDNA samples by the combination of ARMS/asymmetric- rapid PCR/melting curve analysis. The concordance between these two methodologies was 85.5% (100/117). The comparison of plasma-ctDNA analysis using ddPCR and tissue testing revealed an overall agreement of 79.4% (27/34), while the corresponding agreement using the combination of ARMS/asymmetric-rapid PCR/melting curve analysis was 73.5% (25/34). Moreover, comparing the detection of BRAF-mutant ctDNA with the clinics, overall agreement of 87.2% (48/55) for ddPCR and 79.2% (42/53) was demonstrated. Remarkably, the duration of sample storage was negatively correlated with correctness of genotyping results highlighting the importance of pre-analytical factors.
Conclusions
Our direct comparison study has shown a high level of concordance between ddPCR and the combination of ARMS/asymmetric-rapid PCR/melting curve analysis for the detection of BRAF V600E mutations in plasma.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank RomyEichner for helping to collect samples and Victor Costina for critically reading the manuscript.
Author contributions: Eleni Tzanikou: experiments, manuscript writing and editing, Verena Haselmann: study design, supervising experimental procedures, statistical analysis, manuscript writing and editing, Athina Markou: experiments, Angelika Duda: experiments, Michael Neumaier: study design, Jochen Utikal: patient enrollment, Evi Lianidou: study design, supervising experimental procedures, manuscript writing and editing. All authors contributed to revision of the manuscript and approved it for submission. All the authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this submitted manuscript and approved submission. The ethical approval was requires for this study.
Research funding: This research has been co-financed by the European Union and Greek national funds through the Operational Program Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation, under the call RESEARCH–CREATE–INNOVATE (project code: T1RCI-02935).
Employment or leadership: None declared.
Honorarium: None declared.
Competing interests: The funding organization(s) played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.
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©2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Biotin interference in cardiac troponin immunoassay – where the wild things are?
- Review
- Laboratory-related issues in the measurement of cardiac troponins with highly sensitive assays
- Mini Review
- Chromatographic methods development for clinical practice: requirements and limitations
- Opinion Paper
- Harmonising EQA schemes the next frontier: challenging the status quo
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- Current state of the morphological assessment of urinary erythrocytes in The Netherlands: a nation-wide questionnaire
- Reference Values and Biological Variations
- Within-subject and between-subject biological variation of first morning void urine amino acids in 12 healthy subjects
- Proenkephalin as a new biomarker for pediatric acute kidney injury – reference values and performance in children under one year of age
- Hematology and Coagulation
- Quality performance for indirect Xa inhibitor monitoring in patients using international external quality data
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Clinical risk assessment of biotin interference with a high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T assay
- Short- and long-term biological variation of cardiac troponin I in healthy individuals, and patients with end-stage renal failure requiring haemodialysis or cardiomyopathy
- Infectious Diseases
- Monocyte distribution width (MDW) as a screening tool for sepsis in the Emergency Department
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- Letters to the Editors
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Biotin interference in cardiac troponin immunoassay – where the wild things are?
- Review
- Laboratory-related issues in the measurement of cardiac troponins with highly sensitive assays
- Mini Review
- Chromatographic methods development for clinical practice: requirements and limitations
- Opinion Paper
- Harmonising EQA schemes the next frontier: challenging the status quo
- Genetics and Molecular Diagnostics
- Direct comparison study between droplet digital PCR and a combination of allele-specific PCR, asymmetric rapid PCR and melting curve analysis for the detection of BRAF V600E mutation in plasma from melanoma patients
- A novel mitochondrial m.14430A>G (MT-ND6, p.W82R) variant causes complex I deficiency and mitochondrial Leigh syndrome
- Obesity status modifies the association between rs7556897T>C in the intergenic region SLC19A3-CCL20 and blood pressure in French children
- General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
- Influence of reagent lots and multiple measuring systems on estimating the coefficient of variation from quality control data; implications for uncertainty estimation and interpretation of QC results
- Electrophoretic α1-globulin for screening of α1-antitrypsin deficient variants
- A continued method performance monitoring approach for the determination of pediatric renin samples – application within a European clinical trial
- Pilot study for cystic fibrosis neonatal screening: the Cuban experience
- Validation of the analytical performance of the NOVEOS™ System, a system which improves upon the third-generation in vitro allergy testing technology
- IgE cross-reactivity measurement of cashew nut, hazelnut and peanut using a novel IMMULITE inhibition method
- Sexual dimorphism in the cerebrospinal fluid total protein content
- Current state of the morphological assessment of urinary erythrocytes in The Netherlands: a nation-wide questionnaire
- Reference Values and Biological Variations
- Within-subject and between-subject biological variation of first morning void urine amino acids in 12 healthy subjects
- Proenkephalin as a new biomarker for pediatric acute kidney injury – reference values and performance in children under one year of age
- Hematology and Coagulation
- Quality performance for indirect Xa inhibitor monitoring in patients using international external quality data
- Cardiovascular Diseases
- Clinical risk assessment of biotin interference with a high-sensitivity cardiac troponin T assay
- Short- and long-term biological variation of cardiac troponin I in healthy individuals, and patients with end-stage renal failure requiring haemodialysis or cardiomyopathy
- Infectious Diseases
- Monocyte distribution width (MDW) as a screening tool for sepsis in the Emergency Department
- Performance of a Toxo IgM prototype assay for the diagnosis of maternal and congenital Toxoplasma infections
- Letters to the Editors
- Evaluation of an ELISA for SARS-CoV-2 antibody testing: clinical performances and correlation with plaque reduction neutralization titer
- Preliminary evaluation of Roche Cobas Elecsys Anti-SARS-CoV-2 chemiluminescence immunoassay
- Hypoalbuminemia and elevated D-dimer in COVID-19 patients: a call for result harmonization
- Total pathway to method validation
- Derivation of performance specifications for uncertainty of serum C-reactive protein measurement according to the Milan model 3 (state of the art)
- FGF23 measurement in burosumab-treated patients: an emerging treatment may induce a new analytical interference
- Use of a modified IDS-ISYS intact PTH assay for intraoperative PTH measurements
- Agreement of dried blood spot lyso-Gb3 concentrations obtained from different laboratories in patients with Fabry disease
- Influence of delayed separation of plasma from whole blood and centrifugation protocol on Zn plasma concentration
- A survey of order of draw on inpatient wards and adherence to EFLM-COLABIOCLI recommendations
- Successful implementations of automated minimum re-test intervals to overcome ferritin over-requesting in a Spanish hospital laboratory
- Remarkable pseudoleucocytosis induced by mild cryoglobulinemia
- Massive hemolysis due to Clostridium perfringens: a laboratory’s perspective