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Neuroblastoma in advanced stages is one of the most intractable paediatric cancers, even with recent therapeutic advances. Neuroblastoma harbours a variety of genetic changes, including a high frequency of MYCN amplification, loss of heterozygosity at 1p36 and 11q, and gain of genetic material from 17q, all of which have been implicated in the pathogenesis of neuroblastoma^,,,. However, the scarcity of reliable molecular targets has hampered the development of effective therapeutic agents targeting neuroblastoma. Here we show that the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), originally identified as a fusion kinase in a subtype of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NPM–ALK)^,, and more recently in adenocarcinoma of lung (EML4–ALK)^,, is also a frequent target of genetic alteration in advanced neuroblastoma. According to our genome-wide scans of genetic lesions in 215 primary neuroblastoma samples using high …