Anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitors: an updated patent review (2014–2018)

Introduction: Anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK), a receptor tyrosine kinase, has been discovered in several cancers, including anaplastic large-cell lymphoma, non-small cell lung cancer, and inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors. The deregulation of ALK activities, such as translocation and point mutation, results in human carcinogenesis. The use of ALK inhibitors in clinical cancer treatment has been shown to be efficacious, and the issue of...