BRAF and melanoma: To explore whether CD271+ melanoma cells are prone to metastasize to the brain, we analyzed matched pairs of primary tumors (n = 2), extracranial (n = 13) and brain metastasis (n = 12) as well as unmatched brain (n = 7) and extracranial (n = 1) metastases of melanoma for expression of CD271, irrespective of the BRAF mutation status and therapeutic interventions (Supplementary information, SI; Table S1).