Tumor-Specific Antibodies Able to Detect Early-Stage Melanoma

A novel method uses tumor-specific profiling to detect antibodies which are unique to early-stage melanoma. The findings were recently presented at the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology Congress 2024.

In this study, the investigators utilized a cancer array to compare and assess the blood samples of almost 200 patients with stage I and II melanoma as well as 38 healthy donors. All blood samples were collated at the time of initial diagnosis and within 30 days of curative-intent surgery.

According to the results, the researchers identified specific IgG antibodies against three tumor antigens which were promising diagnostic biomarkers for early-stage melanomas. They noted that of the three biomarkers, one showed an AUC value of 0.9805 in the discovery cohort, with 98% sensitivity and 76% specificity, and 0.9846 in the validation cohort, with 99% sensitivity and 82% specificity.

“These results indicate that 99% of melanoma patients in the validation cohort were positive for this marker, while 82% of healthy individuals were correctly identified as negative using the recommended threshold,” explains Dr Cristina Vico-Alonso, lead researcher from the Victorian Melanoma Service, Melbourne, Australia via a press release. “While 18% of healthy individuals were incorrectly identified as positive for this marker, combining it with the other two markers into a multiparameter signature does, however, help improve accuracy.”