Tyrosine kinase activating mutations in human malignancies: Implications for diagnostic pathology

Constitutively activated tyrosine kinases play an important role in human malignancies. Their constant downstream signaling leads to cell proliferation and the inhibition of anti-apoptotic mechanisms. New cancer therapeutics have been designed to specifically target the activated kinases in human cancers and in some instances treatment with these agents leads to tumor regression. With the use of new molecular techniques, it is now possible in routine diagnostic work to characterize human malignancies with respect to the presence or absence of activated tyrosine kinases. This may have important predictive and prognostic implications.