Peer-reviewed veterinary case report
Measuring BRAF mutation in blood of dogs with bladder cancer
By Tagawa, Michihito et al.·Published in PloS one·2020·Obihiro University of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, Japan·View original on PubMed →
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Original publication title: Quantitative analysis of the BRAF V595E mutation in plasma cell-free DNA from dogs with urothelial carcinoma.
- Species:
- dog
Plain-English summary
A group of 15 dogs with bladder cancer (urothelial carcinoma) was tested for a specific mutation called BRAF V595E, which is found in many cases of this disease. Researchers discovered that 73% of the dogs had this mutation in their tumor samples, and the levels of mutated DNA in their blood increased as the disease progressed. This means that measuring the amount of this mutated DNA could help veterinarians track how the cancer is developing and how well treatments are working. This method could be a valuable tool for managing bladder cancer in dogs.
People also search for: dog bladder cancer treatment · BRAF mutation in dogs · monitoring dog cancer progression
Abstract
Circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), which carries tumor-specific mutations, is an emerging candidate biomarker for malignancies and for monitoring disease status in various human tumors. Recently, BRAF V595E mutation has been reported in 80% of dogs with urothelial carcinoma. This study investigates the BRAF V595E allele concentration in circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and assesses the clinical significance of BRAF-mutated ctDNA levels in canines with urothelial carcinoma. A total of 15 dogs with urothelial carcinoma were included. cfDNA concentration was measured using a real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of the LINE-1 gene. To measure the concentration of the mutated BRAF gene in cfDNA, allele-specific real-time PCR with a locked nucleic acid probe was performed. BRAF mutations were detected in 11 (73%) of the 15 tested tumor samples. BRAF-mutated ctDNA concentrations were significantly higher in dogs with the BRAF mutation (14.05 ± 13.51 ng/ml) than in wild-type dogs (0.21 ± 0.41 ng/ml) (p = 0.031). The amount of BRAF-mutated ctDNA in plasma increased with disease progression and responded to treatment. Our results show that BRAF-mutated ctDNA can be detected using allele-specific real-time PCR in plasma samples of canines with urothelial carcinoma with the BRAF V595E mutation. This ctDNA analysis may be a potentially useful tool for monitoring the progression of urothelial carcinoma and its response to treatment.
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Search related cases →Original publication on PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32330187/