Non-small-cell Lung Cancer
The EML4-ALK fusion gene is responsible for approximately 3-5% of non-small-cell lung cancer(NSCLC). The vast majority of cases are adenocarcinomas. The standard test used to detect this gene in tumor samples is fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), but other techniques such as immunohistochemistry (IHC) and reverse-transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) can also be used to detect lung cancers with an ALK gene fusion. ALK lung cancers are found in patients of all ages, although on average these patients may be somewhat younger. ALK lung cancers are more common in light cigarette smokers or nonsmokers, but a significant number of patients with this disease are current or former cigarette smokers.
Read more about this topic: Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase, Pathology
Famous quotes containing the words lung cancer, lung and/or cancer:
“Dylan used to sound like a lung cancer victim singing Woody Guthrie. Now he sounds like a Rolling Stone singing Immanuel Kant.”
—Also quoted in Robert Shelton, No Direction Home, ch. 2, “Prophet Without Honor” (1986)
“Dylan used to sound like a lung cancer victim singing Woody Guthrie. Now he sounds like a Rolling Stone singing Immanuel Kant.”
—Also quoted in Robert Shelton, No Direction Home, ch. 2, “Prophet Without Honor” (1986)
“I’m beginning to believe that Killer Illiteracy ought to rank near heart disease and cancer as one of the leading causes of death among Americans. What you don’t know can indeed hurt you, and so those who can neither read nor write lead miserable lives, like Richard Wright’s character, Bigger Thomas, born dead with no past or future.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)