Drug Resistance in Braf-Driven Tumours: The Search for Candidate Mediators and Biomarkers

Abstract

Activating V600E mutation of the BRAF gene has been identified as being a biomarker for poor prognosis and overall survival. Targeted therapy for this mutation is available, nonetheless, melanoma and colon carcinoma with the BRAFV600E mutation display differences in their response and resistance to therapeutic agents. This work aims to contribute to our understanding the underlying causative mechanisms involved in the resistance to therapy. Herein, the focus of our attention was on the identification of functional differences that might point towards the mechanisms leading to the development of resistance to treatment and to explore the feasibility of using RNA based methodologies to detect the transcript from FFPE tumour specimens. The findings obtained in this study point toward the potential of digital droplet PCR as an assessment tool and shed the light on the role that ROS might play in the development of resistance to BRAF targeted therapy.