title: Somatic alterations in the melanoma genome: a high-resolution array-based comparative genomic hybridization study.
abstract: We performed DNA microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization to identify somatic alterations specific to melanoma genome in 60 human cell lines from metastasized melanoma and from 44 corresponding peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Our data showed gross but nonrandom somatic changes specific to the tumor genome. Although the CDKN2A (78%) and PTEN (70%) loci were the major targets of mono-allelic and bi-allelic deletions, amplifications affected loci with BRAF (53%) and NRAS (12%) as well as EGFR (52%), MITF (40%), NOTCH2 (35%), CCND1 (18%), MDM2 (18%), CCNE1 (10%), and CDK4 (8%). The amplified loci carried additional genes, many of which could potentially play a role in melanoma. Distinct patterns of copy number changes showed that alterations in CDKN2A tended to be more clustered in cell lines with mutations in the BRAF and NRAS genes; the PTEN locus was targeted mainly in conjunction with BRAF mutations. Amplification of CCND1, CDK4, and other loci was significantly increased in cell lines without BRAF-NRAS mutations and so was the loss of chromosome arms 13q and 16q. Our data suggest involvement of distinct genetic pathways that are driven either through oncogenic BRAF and NRAS mutations complemented by aberrations in the CDKN2A and PTEN genes or involve amplification of oncogenic genomic loci and loss of 13q and 16q. It also emerges that each tumor besides being affected by major and most common somatic genetic alterations also acquires additional genetic alterations that could be crucial in determining response to small molecular inhibitors that are being currently pursued.
authors.affiliation: Division of Molecular Genetic Epidemiology, German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany. a.gast@dkfz.de
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gast
authors.forename: Dominique
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Scherer
authors.forename: Bowang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bloethner
authors.forename: Stephanie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Melchert
authors.forename: Antje
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sucker
authors.forename: Kari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hemminki
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schadendorf
authors.forename: Rajiv
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kumar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D055028:Comparative Genomic Hybridization; D005260:Female; D018628:Gene Dosage; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D015894:Genome, Human; D006801:Humans; D019656:Loss of Heterozygosity; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000556:secondary; D008875:Middle Aged; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012878:Skin Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D012333:RNA, Messenger