Gene fusion

Gene fusion is a common event in cancer and a re-occuring theme in molecular pathology. It is hybrid of two coding or regulatory DNA sequences.

General

Caused by genomic rearrangements such as:

• translocation.
• deletion.
• duplication.
• inversion.

First fusion was described as BCR-ABL1 fusion in CML. Subsequently Imatinib was the first inhibitor targeting CML with BCR-ABL1 fusion.