{"doi":"10.1038/nature05945","title":"Identification of the transforming EML4–ALK fusion gene in non-small-cell lung cancer","abstract":"Improvement in the clinical outcome of lung cancer is likely to be achieved by identification of the molecular events that underlie its pathogenesis. Here we show that a small inversion within chromosome 2p results in the formation of a fusion gene comprising portions of the echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4) gene and the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) cells. Mouse 3T3 fibroblasts forced to express this human fusion tyrosine kinase generated transformed foci in culture and subcutaneous tumours in nude mice. The EML4-ALK fusion transcript was detected in 6.7% (5 out of 75) of NSCLC patients examined; these individuals were distinct from those harbouring mutations in the epidermal growth factor receptor gene. Our data demonstrate that a subset of NSCLC patients may express a transforming fusion kinase that is a promising candidate for a therapeutic target as well as for a diagnostic molecular marker in NSCLC.","journal":"Nature","year":2007,"id":5315,"datarank":22.255127377393098,"base_score":8.593969030218286,"endowment":8.593969030218286,"self_citation_contribution":1.289095354532743,"citation_network_contribution":20.966032022860354,"self_endowment_contribution":1.289095354532743,"citer_contribution":20.966032022860354,"corpus_percentile":93.0,"corpus_rank":2286,"citation_count":5398,"citer_count":189,"citers_with_citation_signal":189,"citers_with_endowment":189,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2007-07-11","authors":[{"id":52994,"name":"Young Lim Choi","orcid":null,"position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":52995,"name":"Munehiro Enomoto","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":52996,"name":"Shuji Takada","orcid":"0000-0002-9406-4683","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":52997,"name":"Yoshihiro Yamashita","orcid":null,"position":4,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":52998,"name":"Shunpei Ishikawa","orcid":null,"position":5,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":52999,"name":"Shin-ichiro Fujiwara","orcid":null,"position":6,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":53000,"name":"Hideki Watanabe","orcid":"0000-0002-9561-4077","position":7,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":53001,"name":"Kentaro Kurashina","orcid":"0000-0003-4034-9883","position":8,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":53002,"name":"Hisashi Hatanaka","orcid":null,"position":9,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":53003,"name":"Masashi Bando","orcid":"0000-0002-7244-0385","position":10,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":53004,"name":"Shoji Ohno","orcid":null,"position":11,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":53005,"name":"Yuichi Ishikawa","orcid":"0000-0002-9594-5845","position":12,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":13188,"name":"Hiroyuki Aburatani","orcid":"0000-0003-0438-1544","position":13,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":53006,"name":"Toshiro Niki","orcid":"0000-0003-4531-1331","position":14,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":53007,"name":"Yasunori Sohara","orcid":null,"position":15,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":53008,"name":"Yukihiko Sugiyama","orcid":null,"position":16,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":53009,"name":"Hiroyuki Mano","orcid":"0000-0003-4645-0181","position":17,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":53010,"name":"Shin‐ichiro Fujiwara","orcid":"0000-0002-4523-2994","position":18,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":52993,"name":"Manabu Soda","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":27,"raw_metadata":{"citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-03-01T18:20:47.508186Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}