KIAA1549

Overview

KIAA1549 is best known as the most common fusion partner of BRAF in pediatric low-grade gliomas. The KIAA1549::BRAF fusion produces a constitutively active BRAF kinase that drives MAPK pathway signaling.

Alterations observed in the corpus

• KIAA1549::BRAF fusions were detected in CSF ctDNA from glioma patients profiled by MSK-IMPACT in the csf_msk_2024 cohort (1,007 CSF samples, 711 patients) PMID:39289779.
• KIAA1549 is the most common 5’ fusion partner of BRAF (25% of all BRAF fusions), dominant in pilocytic astrocytomas (90% prevalence), in a tumor-agnostic analysis of 212 BRAF fusion-positive patients across 52 histologies at MSK PMID:38922339.
• Most frequent 5’ fusion partner for BRAF in pilocytic astrocytoma (70/96 WGS cases); KIAA1549:BRAF fusion is the defining oncogenic driver in the majority of cerebellar pilocytic astrocytomas PMID:23817572

Cancer types (linked)

• DIFG / glioma — KIAA1549::BRAF fusions detected in CSF ctDNA from glioma patients PMID:39289779.
• PAST — dominant BRAF fusion partner in pilocytic astrocytoma (90%); KIAA1549::BRAF characterizes the most common de novo BRAF fusion-positive tumor type in the MSK cohort PMID:38922339.

Co-occurrence and mutual exclusivity

• Not reported in the corpus.

Therapeutic relevance

• KIAA1549::BRAF fusions are targetable via MAPK pathway inhibitors; CSF ctDNA detection enables non-invasive molecular diagnosis in CNS tumors PMID:39289779.
• MEK inhibitors (trametinib, selumetinib) provided durable benefit in pilocytic astrocytomas harboring KIAA1549::BRAF (all 6 treated patients achieved >6 months on therapy); combination BRAF+MEK inhibition was less durable (median 1 month) PMID:38922339.

Open questions

• None flagged in the corpus.

Sources

• PMID:39289779
• PMID:38922339

This page was processed by crosslinker on 2026-05-09. - PMID:23817572

This page was processed by crosslinker on 2026-05-09.