BRAF and thyroid cancer: This suggests that other compensatory mechanisms affect adaptive resistance development in BRAF. Riesco-Eizaguirre et al. demonstrated that the BRAF oncogene activates the secretion of an autocrine TGF-ß loop leading to MEK-ERK-independent NIS diminution which operates in tandem with the MEK-ERK pathway in thyroid cancer (Figure 2B) 22.