Genomic landscapes of acral melanomas in East Asia

Background/Aim: Acral melanomas (AM) represent a rare subgroup of melanomas with poor clinical outcomes and are enriched in Asian populations. Recent advances in next generation sequencing have provided opportunities to apply precision medicine to AM. Patients and Methods: Here, we present a series of 13 patients with melanomas from Taiwan and Singapore, including 8 patients with AM profiled using whole exome sequencing and summarize the recent studies on the genomic landscape of AM. Results: We identified mutually exclusive mutations in BRAF, NRAS, HRAS, NF1 and KIT in 6 AM cases. In addition, recurrent copy number gains in CCND1 and CDK4, as well as recurrent deletions in CDKN2A/CDKN2B, ATM and RAD51 were observed, supporting the potential use of CDK4/6 or PARP inhibitors in the treatment of these patients. Conclusion: The genomic landscape of AM provides an important resource for applying novel targeted therapies in this rare disease.