BRAF mutations constitute a major genetic alteration in this histologic group of pediatric brain tumors and may serve as a molecular target for biologically based inhibitors.
Level 1: The use of afatinib is not recommended in patients with brain metastasis due to breast cancer.There is insufficient evidence to make recommendations regarding: the use of epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors erlotinib and gefitinib in patients with brain metastasis due to nonsmall cell lung cancerthe use of BRAF inhibitors dabrafenib and vemurafenib in the treatment of patients with brain metastases due to metastatic melanomathe use of HER2 agents trastuzumab and lapatinib to treat patients with brain metastases due to metastatic breast cancerthe use of vascular endothelial growth factor agents bevacizumab, sunitinib, and sorafenib in the treatment of patients with solid tumor brain metastases.The full guideline can be found at: https://www.cns.org/guidelines/guidelines-treatment-adults-metastatic-brain-tumors/chapter_9.
The BRAFV600E mutation occurs frequently in certain brain tumors such as pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma, ganglioglioma, and pilocytic astrocytoma, and less frequently in epithelioid and giant cell glioblastoma.
Our method successfully detected KIAA1549-v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1 (BRAF) fusion in 14 out of 19 patients suffering from five types of paediatric brain tumours providing information on fusion breakpoints within 2 h.
PKM2-regulated MLC2 phosphorylation, which is greatly enhanced by EGF stimulation or EGFRvIII, K-Ras G12V and B-RafV600E mutant expression, plays a pivotal role in cytokinesis, cell proliferation and brain tumour development.
Accordingly, this study provides direct evidence of a BRAF somatic mutation contributing to the intrinsic epileptogenicity in pediatric brain tumors and suggests that BRAF and REST could be treatment targets for intractable epilepsy.
Recently, aberrant methylation of MLH1, MGMT and MSI were shown to be associated with mutations in genes such as BRAF, RAS and IDH1 in colon and brain tumours.
Glioneuronal tumors (GNTs) are the most common histological type of brain tumors in patients who received epilepsy surgery, and part of them presented with BRAFV600E mutation.
Molecular markers such as MGMT, EGFR, IDH, 1p19q, ATRX, TERT, FGFR-TACC, and BRAF are now being used to classify brain tumors as well as influence management decisions.
Sorafenib, the first agent developed to target BRAF mutant melanoma, is a multi-kinase inhibitor that was approved by the FDA for therapy of kidney and subsequently liver cancer, and is currently in clinical trials for thyroid, lung and brain cancer.
Epithelioid glioblastoma is a recognized glioblastoma variant, recently added to the World Health Organization brain tumor classification, with similar prognosis as the classic variant and B-RafV600E mutations in 50% of the cases.