Complete remission with single agent lorlatinib in children with ALK+ anaplastic large cell lymphoma and central nervous system involvement: a case report
Abstract
Therapies targeting cancer-specific mutations can result in remarkable clinical responses while reducing adverse effects. We describe the use of lorlatinib, a potent oral inhibitor of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) that crosses the blood brain barrier (BBB), in a case report of two patients with refractory and relapsed ALK+ anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALK+ ALCL) with central nervous system (CNS) involvement. In both cases, treatment with single agent lorlatinib led to rapid and durable complete remission with tolerable side effects. Furthermore, we also describe a novel application of next generation sequencing to characterize circulating immune receptor DNA sequences associated with ALCL, and tracked the molecular response to therapy with subsequent blood specimens. These cases demonstrate that utilization of an effective targeted therapy against cancer-specific driver mutations that penetrates the BBB can lead to a significant clinical response, and presents clonal tracking for molecular response assessment as a potential approach for further study.
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BibTeX
@article{wang2026complete,
title = {{Complete remission with single agent lorlatinib in children with ALK+ anaplastic large cell lymphoma and central nervous system involvement: a case report}},
author = {Crystal Wang and Yael Mossé and Lianna J. Marks and John Frederick Tan and Michael P. Link},
journal = {Frontiers in Oncology},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.3389/fonc.2026.2009016},
url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2026.2009016},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Complete remission with single agent lorlatinib in children with ALK+ anaplastic large cell lymphoma and central nervous system involvement: a case report
AU - Crystal Wang
AU - Yael Mossé
AU - Lianna J. Marks
AU - John Frederick Tan
AU - Michael P. Link
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
JO - Frontiers in Oncology
DO - 10.3389/fonc.2026.2009016
UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fonc.2026.2009016
AB - Therapies targeting cancer-specific mutations can result in remarkable clinical responses while reducing adverse effects. We describe the use of lorlatinib, a potent oral inhibitor of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) that crosses the blood brain barrier (BBB), in a case report of two patients with refractory and relapsed ALK+ anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALK+ ALCL) with central nervous system (CNS) involvement. In both cases, treatment with single agent lorlatinib led to rapid and durable complete remission with tolerable side effects. Furthermore, we also describe a novel application of next generation sequencing to characterize circulating immune receptor DNA sequences associated with ALCL, and tracked the molecular response to therapy with subsequent blood specimens. These cases demonstrate that utilization of an effective targeted therapy against cancer-specific driver mutations that penetrates the BBB can lead to a significant clinical response, and presents clonal tracking for molecular response assessment as a potential approach for further study.
SN - 2234-943X
ER -