The association of the occurrence of<i>KIF5B-RET</i>fusion gene in lung cancer with age, gender, smoking status, histology type, differentiation and TNM stage was analyzed.
The KIF5B-RET fusion defines an additional subset of lung cancer with a potentially targetable driver oncogene enriched in never smokers with "pan-negative" lung adenocarcinomas.
Our data demonstrate that a subset of NSCLCs could be caused by a fusion of KIF5B and RET, and suggest the chimeric oncogene as a promising molecular target for the personalized diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer.
Similar levels of drug sensitivity were displayed by the three most common ALK fusion proteins in lung cancer (EML4-ALK variants E13;A20, E20;A20, and E6b;A20) as well as a KIF5B-ALK fusion protein.