ALK

Background

ALK (anaplastic lymphoma kinase, cd246) is a transmembrane receptor of leucine kinase with molecular weight of 200kda.ALK gene encodes an orphan receptor with tyrosine kinase activity belonging to the insulin receptor superfamily, which plays an important role in brain development.ALK is amplified, mutated and rearranged in various cancers, including anaplastic large cell lymphomas, neuroblastoma and non-small cell lung cancer. The most common genetic alterations seen in ALK malfunction are chromosomal rearrangements resulting in multiple fusion genes.In normal tissues, a few cells express ALK, such as glial cells and neurons. In tumor cases, literature has shown that ALK is expressed in anaplastic large cell lymphoma, inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor, rhabdomyosarcoma, leiomyoma, lung adenocarcinoma, etc.