The authors assessed the relative contributions of BRAF and TERT promoter mutations to papillary thyroid cancer mortality. Papillary thyroid cancer–specific mortality occurred in as many as 22.7% of patients with the “genetic duet” of both mutations, vs 0.6% with neither mutation, 2.4% with the BRAF mutation alone, and 6.3% with the TERT promoter mutation alone.
The study authors determined that having both mutations is associated with the greatest risk of disease-specific mortality among patients with papillary thyroid cancer, relative to either mutation alone.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=27581851
