BREAKING BRAF
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What is BRAF?
What is BRAF?
How do I even pronounce it?
What does it mean?
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All of these questions are perfectly normal, yet incredibly hard to find an easy-to-understand answer to. We've set up this website to help you navigate this complex world, in terms that you'll understand and at a pace that's right for you.
How do I
pronounce BRAF?
As you travel within the BRAF community, you’ll hear two main pronunciations of it.
The medical and scientific community call it
B-RAF (bee-raff).
However, it has been commonly adopted by patients and carers as the simpler ‘BRAF’ (braff) acronym with a single syllable pronunciation.
What is the BRAF gene?
BRAF is a normal gene in the human body.
It is part of the RAS-RAF-MEK-ERK signalling pathway - a chain of proteins which help regulate how cells grow and multiply.
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If you have 'Wild Type' BRAF this means you do not have a mutation. Wild Type is normal. We like to remember that by thinking ‘as found in the wild’.
What is a BRAF mutation?
A mutation is a change within a gene that stops it working correctly. When the BRAF gene mutates, the BRAF protein becomes overactive. and signals to cells to divide and grow rapidly in an uncontrollable way.
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This mutation causes the protein to be overly active, driving the development of cancer and tumour growth.
Who is affected?
Bowel cancer is cancer that starts in the large bowel, which is made up of the colon and rectum. It’s also called colorectal cancer. About 10% of colorectal cancers show a mutation of the BRAF gene. Of those, 80-90% will have a BRAF mutation called V600E, although there are others too.
You will then see an MSS or MSI status against your results, which shows your microsatellite status.
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You can find more details in our 'BRAF Biomarker' Guide.
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