Combating Melanoma, the deadliest skin cancer has always been a bigger target for the physicians and researchers worldwide.

The uncertainty regarding the role of mutations in the gene BRAF for the progress of melanoma have been made clear by a new research, which indicates that the medicines that slow down the gene raises chances of survival.

In the research, many drugs affecting the BRAF gene demonstrated encouraging results in clinical trials. It is not yet known, what exactly impacts the survival rates.

After the failure of BRAF inhibitor sorafenib, for elevating the survival in melanoma patients last year, the role of the same has been doubted even more.

The finding was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. In the report, the reason for the failure of sorafenib has been cited.

It said that the drug did not focus on the mutated form of BRAF in tumors and, therefore it was not effective. On the other hand, it was shown that an advanced for of drug termed PLX4720 did well in increasing the survival, as it targets the damaged BRAF.

This was concluded by erecting some models using drug-resistant forms of the BRAF protein. It was then tested how these drugs hold their anti-cancer activity on tumor cells, along with mutated forms of the gene.