Genotyping of an Italian papillary thyroid carcinoma cohort revealed high prevalence of BRAF mutations, absence of RAS mutations and allowed the detection of a new mutation of BRAF oncoprotein (BRAF(V599lns)).

Objectives: The genes RET and RAS, and more recently BRAF, have been shown to be frequently mutated in human papillary thyroid carcinomas (PTC). The aim of this study was to genotype for these mutations a cohort of thyroid tumours collected at our institutions.

Design And Patients: Thyroid tumours removed from 51 subjects were analysed, including 43 PTC and 8 non-PTC tumours [3 follicular adenomas (FA), 4 follicular carcinomas (FTC) and 1 anaplastic carcinoma (AC)].