MicroRNA and ALK-positive anaplastic large cell lymphoma.

In this review we describe the current literature covering the role of microRNA in anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL). MicroRNA is one of the best characterized subgroups of non-coding RNAs and it is now becoming clear that its importance in oncogenesis has been greatly underestimated. In ALCL the deregulation of a diverse range of microRNA has been demonstrated however much less is known about the physiological consequences of this deregulation. Here we focus on the subgroup of ALCL bearing the anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) translocation (ALK+). The pathways linking oncogenic ALK signaling and the regulation of microRNA are now becoming established with the transcription factor STAT3 appearing to play an important role in the epigenetic regulation. This review will discuss our current understanding of the role of microRNAs in ALK-mediated oncogenesis and will explain why we believe these new findings suggest that the use of methyltransferase inhibitors together with microRNA-specific drugs could be a useful addition to our current armamentarium in the fight against ALK(+) ALCL.