Thyroid oncogenesis often involves constitutive activation of the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) kinase (MEKK)/extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) pathway, usually driven by the T1799A somatic mutation in the v-raf murine sarcoma viral oncogene homolog B1 (BRAF) exon 15, a process which results in a V600E amino acid replacement (8). The gene discussed is BRAF; the disease is thyroiditis.