Anaplastic lymphoma kinase: Role in cancer and therapy perspective

Lung Cancer Biomarkers

“…The ALK gene is located on the short arm of chromosome 2 at position 23 (13). ALK gene rearrangement was originally identified in anaplastic large cell lymphoma (14) and was subsequently described in a subset of NSCLC tumors harboring a fusion of ALK and echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 ( EML4 ) genes (4).…”

“…The EML4-ALK fusion has been detected in 3.7% to 7% of NSCLCs (10, 14), usually in adenocarcinomas with signet-ring cells or cribriform histology features, and is more common in young patients who have never smoked (14). There are several EML4-ALK rearrangement variants and also ALK fusion with other less frequent partners, such as kinesin family member 5B ( KIF5B ), TRK-fused gene ( TFG ), kinesin light chain 1 ( KLC1 ), and huntingtin-interacting protein 1 ( HIP1 ) genes, resulting in oncogenic transformation (13, 15). It has been shown that EGFR , Kirsten rat sarcoma viral oncogene homolog gene ( KRAS ), and ALK molecular alterations are mutually exclusive events (4); nevertheless, they have been described in up to 2.7% of lung adenocarcinoma cases with concurrent molecular alterations (16).…”

Anaplastic lymphoma kinase expression and gene alterations in glioblastoma: correlations with clinical outcome

“…Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) belongs to the tyrosine kinase receptor family and is implicated in the regulation of a plethora of cellular functions including inhibition of apoptosis and proliferation 1. Physiological ALK protein expression in normal human tissues has been demonstrated in a small number of glial and endothelial cells, pericytes and in scattered neurons of the basal ganglia, thalamic nuclei, cerebral cortex, hypothalamus and cerebellum,2 as well as in the small intestine, testis, prostate and colon;3 ganglion cells of the appendix and the myenteric plexus have been used as positive internal controls for ALK immunohistochemistry (Nordic Immunohistochemical Quality Control Assessment Run 39/2013).…”

STAR-Fusion: Fast and Accurate Fusion Transcript Detection from RNA-Seq

“…Determining the driver of a given tumor is important to inform the best therapeutic strategy and match drugs effective against certain oncogenic fusions with the patients who could benefit from them. For example, tyrosine kinase inhibitors have been highly effective in the treatment of tumors harboring kinase fusion transcripts in leukemia and other cancers (Zhao, et al, 2015) (Shaw and Solomon, 2015) (Druker, et al, 2006) (Gross, et al, 2015).…”