High incidence of BRAF V600 mutation in Indian patients with head and neck cancer.

In cancer cells, BRAF is frequently mutated at codon 600 (V600) leading to the replacement of valine amino acid with other amino acids. The current study was performed to assess the prevalence of BRAFV600 mutation in Indian patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Among the patients, 27% were homozygous, and 71% were heterozygous for the mutation and only 2% showed a wild genotype. Since identification of BRAFV600 mutation in cancer patients is used for selection of the therapeutic agents, this study shows that all Indian patients with HNSCCmust be screened for this mutation.