He is also the first researcher who (in June 2010) successfully treated a patient affected by ALK+ lymphoma with an ALK inhibitor (crizotinib).
Approximately half of IMTs have a rearrangement of the ALK gene.
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ALK inhibitors are potential anti-cancer drugs that act on tumours with variations of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) such as an EML4-ALK translocation.
About 4% of patients with non-small cell lung carcinoma have a chromosomal rearrangement that generates a fusion gene between EML4 ('echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4') and ALK ('anaplastic lymphoma kinase'), which results in constitutive kinase activity that contributes to carcinogenesis and seems to drive the malignant phenotype.
EML4-ALK positive lung cancer is a medical term that refers to a primary malignant lung tumor whose cells contain a characteristic abnormal configuration of DNA wherein the echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4) gene is fused to the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene.