RNA profiling explored as noninvasive diagnostic tool in melanoma

The sensitivity of RNA profiling using adhesive transparent patches (ATP) is high but specificity is low, according to a study.

In this prospective nonrandomized trial, RNA extracted from ATP was used to test for mRNA expression of PRAME and LINC00518 genes in 126 specimens. GAPDH was used as a reference gene.

Pathology reports from excisional biopsy detected melanoma in 38.9% of patients (49 out of 126); non-melanoma skin cancer in 3.2% (4 out of 126); and dysplastic nevus in 44.4% (56 out of 126).

Amplifiable mRNA was found in all ATP samples, which were taken the day of the excision. Approximately 65% (82 out of 126) of samples had positive markers.

Sensitivity for detection of skin cancers was 88.14% and specificity was 53.85%, with a positive predictive value of 63.41%, a negative predictive value of 83.33%, and accuracy of 70.16%.

There were 7 false negatives of which 3 were melanoma in situ and 4 invasive melanoma.

Reference
Samoylenko I, et al. Multicenter prospective clinical trial of molecular genetic markers for non-invasive differential diagnosis of benign and malignant melanocytic skin lesions. Presented at: ASCO 2022.