Aberrant DNA methylation predicts melanoma-specific survival in patients with acral melanoma

Dinesh Pradhan, George Jour, Denái Milton, Varshini Vasudevaraja, Michael T. Tetzlaff, Priyadharsini Nagarajan, Jonathan L. Curry, Doina Ivan, Lihong Long, Yingwen Ding, Ravesanker Ezhilarasan, Erik P. Sulman, Adi Diab, Wen Jen Hwu, Victor G. Prieto, Carlos Antonio Torres-Cabala, Phyu P. Aung

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

Acral melanoma (AM) is a rare, aggressive type of cutaneous melanoma (CM) with a distinct genetic profile. We aimed to identify a methylome signature distinguishing primary acral lentiginous melanoma (PALM) from primary non-lentiginous AM (NALM), metastatic ALM (MALM), primary non-acral CM (PCM), and acral nevus (AN). A total of 22 PALM, nine NALM, 10 MALM, nine PCM, and three AN were subjected to genome-wide methylation analysis using the Illumina Infinium Methylation EPIC array interrogating 866,562 CpG sites. A prominent finding was that the methylation profiles of PALM and NALM were distinct. Four of the genes most differentially methylated between PALM and NALM or MALM were HHEX, DIPK2A, NELFB, and TEF. However, when primary AMs (PALM + NALM) were compared with MALM, IFITM1 and SIK3 were the most differentially methylated, highlighting their pivotal role in the metastatic potential of AMs. Patients with NALM had significantly worse disease-specific survival (DSS) than patients with PALM. Aberrant methylation was significantly associated with aggressive clinicopathologic parameters and worse DSS. Our study emphasizes the importance of distinguishing the two epigenetically distinct subtypes of AM. We also identified novel epigenetic prognostic biomarkers that may serve to risk-stratify patients with AM and may be leveraged for the development of targeted therapies.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number2031
JournalCancers
Volume11
Issue number12
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2019

Keywords

  • Acral lentiginous melanoma
  • Cutaneous melanoma
  • Epigenetics
  • Methylation

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oncology
  • Cancer Research

MD Anderson CCSG core facilities

  • Biostatistics Resource Group

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