Rearrangements of the RAF kinase pathway in prostate cancer, gastric cancer and melanoma

Using pair-end transcriptome sequencing, this study provides the identification of Raf pathway gene rearrangements in a small proportion of prostate and gastric cancers and in melanomas. The fusion proteins show tumorigenic potential and represent a unique activating alteration of this oncogenic pathway, which seems to be mutually exclusive from known cancer-associated Raf mutations. This suggests that therapeutic Raf inhibition can be expanded to this fusion-harboring subset of solid tumors.