It has emerged that BRAF (v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homologue B1) is very frequently activated by mutation in cutaneous melanomas (Brose et al, 2002; Davies et al, 2002; Alsina et al, 2003; Dong et al, 2003; Gorden et al, 2003; Kumar et al, 2003a, 2003b; Maldonado et al, 2003; Omholt et al, 2003; Pollock et al, 2003; Rimoldi et al, 2003; Satyamoorthy et al, 2003; Weber et al, 2003; Cohen et al, 2004; Reifenberger et al, 2004; Shinozaki et al, 2004; Tsao et al, 2004). The gene discussed is BRAF; the disease is cutaneous melanoma.