Stat3 is required for ALK-mediated lymphomagenesis and provides a possible therapeutic target.

Anaplastic large cell lymphomas (ALCLs) are caused by chromosomal translocations that juxtapose the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) proto-oncogene to a dimerization partner, resulting in constitutive expression of ALK and ALK tyrosine kinase activity. One substrate of activated ALK in human ALCLs is the transcription factor Stat3, and its phosphorylation is accurately recapitulated in a new nucleophosmin (NPM)-ALK transgenic mouse model of lymphomagenesis. Here we show by gene targeting that Stat3 is required for the transformation of mouse embryonic fibroblasts in vitro, for the development of B-cell lymphoma in transgenic mice and for the growth and survival of both human and mouse NPM-ALK-transformed B and T cells.