0000000001056921
AUTHOR
Kristina Ruuth
Abstract 4107: Targeted re-sequencing of neuroblastoma tumors reveals chromosomal rearrangements that involve the Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK) gene.
Abstract Neuroblastoma (NBL) is a cancer of early childhood arising from the developing sympathetic nervous system. NBL tumors display a broad clinical and biological heterogeneity, ranging from highly aggressive tumors with fatal outcome to tumors with spontaneous regression. Recurrent mutations are mainly only observed in Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase (ALK), which is involved in the pathogenesis of both familiar and sporadic NBL. ALK encodes a tyrosine kinase receptor with importance in neuronal development and was initially characterized in anaplastic large cell lymphoma from a translocation leading to the NPM-ALK fusion protein. Subsequent studies show that additional ALK chimeras have bee…
Intragenic anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements: Translocations as a novel mechanism ofALKactivation in neuroblastoma tumors
Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) has been demonstrated to be deregulated in sporadic as well as in familiar cases of neuroblastoma (NB). Whereas ALK-fusion proteins are common in lymphoma and lung cancer, there are few reports of ALK rearrangements in NB indicating that ALK mainly exerts its oncogenic capacity via activating mutations and/or overexpression in this tumor type. In this study, 332 NB tumors and 13 cell lines were screened by high resolution single nucleotide polymorphism microarray. Gain of 2p was detected in 23% (60/332) of primary tumors and 46% (6/13) of cell lines, while breakpoints at the ALK locus were detected in four primary tumors and two cell lines. These were furthe…