Differential Gene Set Enrichment of Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition Pathway in BRAF vs. NRAS Mutated Metastatic Melanoma

Abstract This study investigates the differential activation of the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) pathway in metastatic melanoma, focusing on BRAF- and NRAS-mutated samples from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) reveals that BRAF mutations are more significantly associated with increased EMT activation, relative to all other mutations in the dataset. In contrast, NRAS mutations were not significantly associated with gene expression of the EMT pathway, suggesting alternative mechanisms for metastasis.