Most acral melanomas ‘likely don’t arise from naevi’
The lesions have different underlying mutations, a genetic sequencing study reveals
Genetic analysis of the largest series of acral naevi specimens to date suggests that the lesions do not lead to prototypical acral melanomas, US researchers claim.
Their results suggest acral naevi and acral melanomas have different mutation patterns.
Acral naevi have a high rate of BRAF V6OOE mutations that can lead to cutaneous melanomas with exposure to UV rays in a small subset of patients, but acral melanoma has an entirely different mutation pathway.
The researchers from the Moffit Cancer Centre at the University of Florida carried out next-generation sequencing of 50 naevi specimens (90% from White patients), to see whether the genetics of the naevi matched those of acral melanoma.
