CASE REPORT article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Thoracic Oncology
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1450796
This article is part of the Research TopicTreatment Response and Resistance to Targeted Therapies for NSCLCView all 17 articles
Unveiling Novel BCL11A-ALK Fusion in Lung Adenocarcinoma through NGS Insights and Alectinib's Remarkable Therapeutic Efficacy: A Case Report
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China
- 2Beijing ChosenMed Clinical Laboratory Co. Ltd., Beijing, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene rearrangements are infrequent in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), yet patients with these fusions demonstrate sensitivity to ALK tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) such as alectinib, which has become standard therapy for ALK-positive NSCLC. Next-generation sequencing (NGS) has been pivotal in identifying various ALK fusion partners, shedding light on the molecular landscape of NSCLC, and broadening therapeutic options for affected individuals. Case Presentation: Here, we present the case of a 57-year-old Chinese female with advanced lung adenocarcinoma harboring a novel BCL11A-ALK fusion. The patient exhibited a durable partial response to alectinib. NGS analysis of tumor tissue identified the BCL11A-ALK fusion at the DNA and RNA levels. Treatment with alectinib (450 mg, twice daily) resulted in a remarkable progression-free survival of 65 months to date. Conclusion: This case report unveils a BCL11A-ALK fusion in advanced lung adenocarcinoma, contributing valuable insights to the realm of ALK fusion-driven NSCLC treatment. The notable response to alectinib underscores the significance of utilizing DNA-and RNA-based NGS techniques for identifying rare fusions in clinical practice, thus informing personalized treatment strategies.
Keywords: Long response, BCL11A-ALK, Alectinib, NGS, NSCLC
Received: 18 Jun 2024; Accepted: 02 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Ding, Su, Su, Cao and Zha. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Wangjian Zha, Department of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital, Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, 201129, Jiangsu Province, China
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.