The Braf(V600E) mutation has been detected in patients with metastatic melanoma, 
colon, thyroid, and other cancers. Studies suggested that tumors with this 
mutation are especially sensitive to BRAF inhibitors-hence the need to reliably 
determine the BRAF status of tumor specimens. The present technologies used to 
screen for this mutation fail to address the problems associated with 
infiltrating stromal and immune cells bearing wild-type BRAF alleles and thus 
may fail to detect the presence of mutant BRAF(V600E) tumors. We have developed 
a rapid, inexpensive method of BRAF analysis that reduces the contamination of 
wild-type BRAF sequences from tumor biopsies. The protocol involves a series of 
PCR amplifications and restriction digestions that take advantage of unique 
features of both wild-type and mutant BRAF RNA at codon 600. Using this 
protocol, mutant BRAF can be detected in RNA from mixed populations with as few 
as 0.1 % BRAF(V600E) mutant containing cells.