The childhood cancer neuroblastoma can either run in families or occur sporadically. Several studies find that the gene ALK is a chief offender in thi disease, because its germline mutations mediate both forms. Neuroblastoma is the most common childhood cancer diagnosed before the age of one, and accounts for some 15% of all cancer deaths in children. Some patients inherit a genetic predisposition to neuroblastoma due to mutations in the germ line (cells that can give rise to all other cells in an organism); in others, the cancer is sporadic, that is, it may be caused by both germline and somatic (found only in tumour cells) mutations. In this issue, four studies implicate various mutations in the gene ALK in both familial and apparently sporadic cases of neuroblastoma.
展开▼
