From Mass General: ALK and targeted lung cancer threrapy

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21475126

Clin Adv Hematol Oncol. 2011 Mar;9(3):207-14.
New Targets in Advanced NSCLC: EML4-ALK.
Crystal AS, Shaw AT.

Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center Center, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
Abstract
Targeted therapies aimed at inhibiting oncogenic tyrosine kinases are becoming commonplace in the treatment of cancer. The EML4-ALK fusion gene was first identified as a potentially targetable oncogenic driver in non-small cell lung cancer in 2007. A small molecule ALK inhibitor, crizotinib, may now be on the verge of approval by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of ALK-rearranged lung cancer. Here we review the discovery of EML4-ALK, the development of clinical diagnostics for ALK rearrangements, the clinical epidemiology of lung cancers driven by EML4-ALK, and ongoing ALK inhibitor-based clinical trials.