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Updated: Mar 28, 2026
miRNA Expression Analyses in Prostate Cancer Clinical Tissues
Published on: September 8, 2015
[Alterations of ALK gene and protein expression in prostatic cancer and its clinical significance]
Rongrong Song1, Guoping Ren2, Xiaoyan Liu1
1Department of Pathology, the First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine of Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, China.
Objective:
To investigate ALK genomic rearrangements and expression in prostate cancer, and their clinical implications.
Methods:
Two hundred and eighty-one cases of prostate cancer were included. ALK gene rearrangements were assessed by FISH in all cases, and ALK protein expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry in 191 cases.
Results:
The ALK gene was truncated (mostly 5' deletion) in 18 of 281 (6.4%) cases. EML4-ALK fusion gene was not detected. Genomic rearrangement of ALK gene was not statistically associated with Gleason score, age, TNM or baseline PSA level (P > 0.05). In all 18 cases, there were nuclear expression of ALK protein; in 12 cases, the expression was seen in 5%-30% of the tumor cells, and in the remaining 6 cases, the expression was seen in < 5% of the tumor cells.
Conclusions:
ALK gene rearrangements occurred in 6.4%, of prostate cancer, and these may not be associated with disease progressions. The ALK protein expresses in the nucleus. The EML4-ALK fusion gene was not found in prostate cancer.
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