ALK cancer-related protein correlates with Merkel cell polyomavirus positive Merkel tumours

What is it about?

We investigated the expression of cancer-related, receptor tyrosine kinase proteins known as ALK and EGFR and transcriptional regulator protein EZH2 in rare but aggressive skin cancer called Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) and compared the protein expression to presence of Merkel cell polyomavirus infection (MCV) . We found that ALK and EZH2 are frequently expressed in MCC tumors and notably ALK expression is more frequent in tumors that embody the MCV infection. EGFR seems to exist rarely and only in tumors without viral infection.

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Why is it important?

MCC is aggressive cancer with only limited amount of treatment options and it is necessary to find new treatments for MCC. ALK, EGFR and EZH2 are proteins that function as a driving force in many types of cancers. However there are therapeutics available or in development that blocks the activity of these proteins and can improve the outcome of the patients. Therefore it is important to determine the role of these proteins in MCC to determine, whether they could be targets for treatment. Since ALK is expressed in majority of MCC, this study urges for further research to determine if ALK is really active in MCC and then assess the response of MCC cells to ALK inhibitors. In addition, the potential therapeutic potential of targeting EZH2 needs further analysis, while EZH2 inhibitors are in development. Furthermore, discovering EGFR expression in minority of MCV negative tumors hints that EGFR might have a significance in small subset of MCC if the protein is truly active.