Out of all included studies, nine studies suggested that the risk of a high AJCC stage was lower in patients with BRAF mutation than in those without BRAF mutation; however, the other 42 studies demonstrated the opposite results, especially for patients aged >45 years, in whom positive BRAF mutation status was associated with more frequent cases of stage III/IV cancers compared to stage I/II [20, 76]. This evidence concerns the gene BRAF and cancer.