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Joan Stephenson, PhD

JAMA. 2002;288:155.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A spontaneous mutation in a single gene called BRAF is involved in two thirds of cases of melanoma, according to new findings by an international team of researchers from the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States, Italy, and Hong Kong. The group also found that the same gene is mutated in a smaller proportion of a variety of other human malignancies, including colorectal and ovarian cancers.

Mutations in a single gene called BRAF are involved in two thirds of cases of melanoma. (Photo credit: The Skin Cancer Foundation)

The discovery is the fruit of the first stage of the Cancer Genome Project, a systematic genome-wide search for the genes that, when mutated, cause the normal programs of cell proliferation, differentiation, and death to go awry and cause cancer. In healthy cells, BRAF is part of a pathway that mediates a cell's response to growth signals. When mutated, . . . [Full Text of this Article]