Progress Of EML4-ALK Fusion Gene In The Indvidual Treatment Of Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

According to statistics, the incidence rate and mortality rate of lungcancer is the highest in the malignant tumor around the word, the incidenceis still on the rise. With the progress of science and technology, especially thedevelopment of medical molecular biology and the improvement of genetictesting technology, the pathogenesis of lung cancer has also achieved somebreakthroughs. The treatments of lung cancer had gone from "treat the samediseases with the same method " or " treat different diseases with the samemethod" into " treat different diseases with different treatments ",the newera of individualized therapy. Recently, the echinodermmicrotubule-associated protein-like4-anaplastic lymphomakinase(EML4-ALK) fusion gene has been proved to be another newmolecular target for non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC). EML4-ALKfusion gene is most often detected in never or low smokers with lungadenocarcinoma patients and has unique pathologic features.EML4-ALKhas tumorigelicity both in vitro and in vivo. ALK kinase inhibitors showedgood efficacy in preclinical studies,more and more ALK inhibitors have entered into clinical studies.This review will systamatically introduce themolecular biology characteristics, signal transduction mechanisms, clinicalfeatures, detections, clinical researches, mechanisms of resistance andclinical prognosis in EML4-ALK NSCLC patients.