• Paolo Petreni, Francesca Mazzoni, Giulia Meoni, Alice Lunghi, Fabiana Letizia Cecere, Andrea Muto, and Francesco Di Costanzo.
• Department of Medical Oncology, Careggi University Hospital, Florence - Italy.
• Tumori. 2015 Jun 25; 101 (3): e103-6.

AbstractNon-small-cell lung cancer is a term that encompasses a number of subtypes of lung cancer. In recent years, several intracellular pathways have been studied in order to discover a potential target for novel anticancer therapies such as anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) and reactive oxygen species 1 (ROS1). Increased interest in oncologic treatment research has resulted from the observation that ALK- and ROS1-associated tyrosine kinases show molecular analogies in some of their domains. This discovery led to the hypothesis that target therapy against ALK translocation could have efficacy also in ROS1-positive tumors. Crizotinib is an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor that binds the ALK tyrosine kinase domain, blocking its function. We report the case of a woman with heavily pretreated metastatic lung adenocarcinoma harboring ROS1 positivity who experienced a prolonged and dramatic clinical benefit from crizotinib therapy.

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