Although BRAF mutation has been reported in a variety of other human cancers, it is a rare event in the carcinogenesis and progression/development of gastric cancer.
This is the first report on BRAF mutation in stomach cancer, and the data indicate that BRAF is occasionally mutated in stomach cancer, and suggest that alterations of RAS pathway both by RAS and BRAF mutations contribute to the pathogenesis of stomach cancer.
We have addressed to what extent the tumorigenic-positive selection exerted by BRAF mutations seen in colorectal MMR-deficient tumors was also involved in the tumorigenesis of gastric cancer.