BRAF and cutaneous melanoma: In cutaneous melanomas, alterations in the RAS pathway (BRAF, NRAS and NF1) are important for melanoma development and tumor maintenance [26], whereas the Gαq class of G-protein α subunits GNAQ and GNA11 seem to be important founder molecules in uveal melanoma and other dermal lesions, such as blue nevus, nevus of Ota and nevus of Ito [5, 7, 22].