ALK
ALK
Abbreviation for:activin-like kinase
anaplastic lymphoma kinase, see there
Genetics
A gene on 2p23 that encodes an orphan receptor with tyrosine kinase activity belonging to the insulin receptor superfamily, which plays an important role in brain development.
Molecular pathology
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, including ALK/EML4, ALK/RANBP2 and ALK/ATIC (all on chromosome 2); ALK/TFG (on chromosome 3); ALK/NPM1 and ALK/SQSTM1 (both on chromosome 5); ALK/KIF5B (on chromosome 10); ALK/CLTC (on chromosome 17); ALK/TPM4 (on chromosome 19); and ALK/MSN (on X chromosome).