ALK and non-small cell lung carcinoma: Recent focus on ALK as a therapeutic target occurred due to the discovery of a fusion of ALK with echinoderm microtubule associated protein 4 (EML4-ALK) in a population of NSCLC patients who were highly responsive to the small molecule cMet/ALK inhibitor, Crizotinib (Xalkori; Pfizer, Inc, Groton, CT) (Pillai and Ramalingam 2012;Kwak et al. 2010;Kim et al. 2012;Tiseo et al. 2011).