Tumor Profiling Test – biomarker?

[WendyPam]

Can anyone tell us of a company that does any type of tumor profiling that maybe can lead us to some treatment plan for my Mother.

Another question being that my Mom is Braf Negative and C-Kit Negative and seems that every other test that we have done we never have the marker. Does this make her besides being Braff Negative is she considered Braf Wild Type?

Currently we are on a chemo cycle,Carbo/Abraxane. Trying to get our doc to bring Avastin into the cycle next round. We completed 2 treatments and holding off today because of low levels and our primary doc was out. In 3.4 years all she has done is Interferon, Yervoy and a Yervoy re-induction. With the re-induction we only complete 2 treatments. I am very interested at this point about the clinical trial E7080. Looking at other options until more Anti-pd1 trials open.

Thanks everyone for your help as always!

Wendy

[Catherine Poole]

If I remember correctly your mother has mucosal melanoma? Her tumor would be Braf negative. I don’t know what else they might test for, beyond the kit mutation, but you might reach out to Roger Lo and Tony Ribas at UCLA who are looking at different markers.

[bettin]

Hi Wendy,

BRAF negative means that your Mum’s tumor doesn’t carry the specific BRAF mutation currently tested for and is therefore ‘wildtype’.

As for tumor profiling it is very important to keep in mind what you want to achieve with it- a long list of potential targets without the corresponding drug will set you back quite a bit of money but won’t give you additional treatment options.

Also, the devil is in the (technical ) detail. You’ll have to test on a tumor sample without knowing how representative the sample is, first for the tumor and then for all tumors in your Mum. Then, depending on the technique, you might get a positive though the mutation is only present in very few cells. All to say that there will be no guaranty that even if there was a drug against this specific target and your Mum took it that she would get a response for sure.

I therefore agree with Catherine to ask around who is targeting ‘unusual’ targets in Melanoma- meaning they’ve got an actual working drug against it- and then specifically screen for that.

Bettina

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