Obviously, we are not presuming that all inflammation must cause BRAF mutations, but that persistent or chronic inflammatory processes in the absence of UV exposure (such as thyroiditis in thyroid cancer [31], chronic pancreatitis in pancreatic cancer [37], chronic bowel inflammation in colon cancer [41] and, in our case, a longstanding fistula in a melanoma), can probably make the BRAF gene more susceptible to genetic mutations via an as yet unidentified oxidative stress lesion. The gene discussed is BRAF; the disease is thyroiditis.