Common molecular alterations, such as BRAF p.V600E, RAS point mutations, and fusion oncogenes (RET-PTC being the prototypical example), have been, respectively, associated with conventional papillary carcinoma, follicular-patterned tumours (follicular adenoma, follicular carcinoma, and the follicular variant of papillary carcinoma/non-invasive follicular thyroid neoplasm with papillary-like nuclear features), and with papillary carcinomas from young patients and arising after exposure to ionising radiation, respectively.
BRAF(V600E) mutation and the previously unreported BRAF(G593D) mutation along with p.G606G silent change were found in the second papillary microcarcinoma, but no mutations were detected in the follicular adenoma or in the 2 other pools of solid cell nests screened for BRAF gene mutations.
A missense mutation was found at T1796A (V599E) in exon 15 in four of the six cell lines and 51 of 207 thyroid tumors (24.6%; 0 of 20 follicular adenoma, 0 of 11 follicular carcinoma, 49 of 170 papillary carcinomas, and 2 of 6 undifferentiated carcinomas).