Matthew Meyerson1
Mutations that cause portions of two genes to fuse together and form a hybrid gene are frequent in blood-related cancers. New findings implicate one such fusion gene in the most common type of lung cancer.
Lung cancer is the main cause of cancer deaths throughout the world1, with an annual fatality of more than 1 million. Non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) accounts for about 80% of all lung cancer cases. On page 561 of this issue, Soda et al.2 report their discovery of a gene associated with human NSCLC. They find that a mutation involving positional rearrangement of genes along chromosome 2p activates the expression of the gene ALK, which encodes the ALK tyrosine kinase. Tyrosine kinases are molecular switches that regulate the activity of other proteins by adding phosphate groups to their tyrosine amino-acid residues. These enzymes have been implicated in many cancers, so blocking the activity of ALK kinase could lead to a powerful therapy for patients whose cancers bear this rearrangement.
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