BRAF+ more aggressive?

BRAF+ is more frequent and therefore more $ is invested on treatments by big pharma. Otherwise, I haven't heard of a difference. (Please excuse me if I sound negative, I'm BRAF- and feeling like big pharma isn't putting as much effort into solving the equation for BRAF- sufferers).

The BRAF mutation occurs in about 50% of melanoma patients, mainly cutaneous melanoma. It's definitely frustrating to not have a mutation since there are those drugs created to target those with the mutation. But, the drugs like Ipi/Nivo and Keytruda work whether there's a mutation or not. And more drugs are in the pipeline that also are not mutation targeted drugs. One thing I agree needs to be worked on more are drugs for NRAS and the other less common mutations. Having a mutation but not having a drug that targets it is even more frustrating.. but the scientists are working on it… it just takes a lot of time unfortunately.

Thanks for posting this Ed! This post got me thinking last night as I had never really thought about nor heard that BRAF patients were "worse off" even though I knew what BRAF was and how it works.. so, yeah, it makes sense. And of course makes a ton of sense why they put so much time into creating the targeted drugs for BRAF patients. The other point in the video that I find personally interesting is when he mentions that BRAF positive patients tend to have melanoma show up in areas of the skin that have not had a lot of sun exposure. That's true in my case and I am BRAF positive. Always interests me to learn something new about melanoma that directly relates to myself.. as I continue this journey in kicking it's a** and learning all I can about it, because knowledge is power! 

Cheers Ed, keep the videos coming!