Twenty years ago anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) was discovered in anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL), but the interest in ALK as an oncogene grew only in recent years when ALK rearrangements were reported as recurrent genetic lesions in lung carcinoma and activating single point mutations were described in neuroblastoma. In this review we will describe the main features of ALK-rearranged solid tumors, with particular emphasis to NSCLC and neuroblastoma. We will discuss the numerous in vitro and in vivo studies that confirmed ALK as the driver oncogene in these tumors and the achievements in clinical settings with ALK inhibitors that validated ALK as a therapeutic target. We will finally end with the description of putative innovative therapeutic approaches that are on going to overcome acquired resistance that invariably occurs in crizotinib treated NSCLC patients or intrinsic resistance to crizotinb therapy reported in neuroblastoma.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.2741/S440 | DOI Listing |
Front Immunol
January 2025
Department of Pathology, Shanxi Province Cancer Hospital/Shanxi Hospital Affiliated to Cancer Hosipital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences/Cancer Hospital Affiliated to Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China.
In this article, we report the first case of a 61-year-old woman who was diagnosed with both nodules and cystic lesions in her lungs. The lung nodules were diagnosed as ALK-positive histiocytosis (APH) carrying an gene fusion, which microscopically displayed a mixed morphology of foamy cells, spindle cells, and Touton's giant cells. Immunohistochemistry showed expression of CD163, CD68, and ALK, while fluorescence hybridization (FISH) with second-generation sequencing (NGS) showed the ALK gene fusion with the FLCN gene variant.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPract Radiat Oncol
January 2025
Department of Radiation Oncology, Acibadem Mehmet Ali Aydinlar University School of Medicine, Istanbul, Turkey. Electronic address:
Lorlatinib is a central nervous system (CNS) penetrant third generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) approved for the first line management of metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangement [1] which accounts for 3-5% of NSCLC cases [2]. The most commonly reported side effects include hyperlipidemia, edema, peripheral neuropathy and CNS effects [2]. While ocular side effects such as photopsia, blurred vision, vitreous floaters and diplopia have been documented with another ALK TKI, crizotinib, there are few reports of such effects with lorlatinib [3].
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCurr Oncol
December 2024
School of Pharmacy, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.
The treatment landscape for patients with advanced ALK-positive NSCLC has rapidly evolved following the approval of several ALK TKIs in Canada. However, public funding of ALK TKIs is mostly limited to the first line treatment setting. Using linked provincial health administrative databases, we examined real-world outcomes of patients with advanced ALK-positive NSCLC receiving ALK TKIs in Ontario between 1 January 2012 and 31 December 2021.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAm J Dermatopathol
February 2025
Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY.
Methotrexate (MTX), an antimetabolite targeting certain autoimmune conditions and various hematologic malignancies, has been associated with iatrogenic lymphoproliferative disease (LPD) primarily of B-cell lineage. Less commonly are T-cell neoplasms where primary skin involvement is considered rare. Three cases were encountered in the medical practice of one of the authors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCureus
December 2024
Clinical Research, Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, Lahore, PAK.
Background Lung cancer is the most frequent cause of cancer-related deaths and the most common type of cancer globally. It is generally classified into two main histologic subtypes: non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). NSCLC is the most prevalent type and is enriched with genetic and molecular diversity.
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