Anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL) comprises a group of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHLs) that were ®rst described in 1985 by Stein and co-workers and are characterized by the expression of the CD30/Ki-1 antigen (Stein et al., 1985). Approximately half of these lymphomas are associated with a typical chromosomal translocation, t(2;5)(p23;q35). Much confusion about the exact classi®cation and clinicopathological features of this subgroup of NHL was clari®ed with the identi®ca-tion of NPM ± ALK (nucleophosmin-anaplastic lymphoma kinase) as the oncogene created by the t(2;5) (Morris et al., 1994). With the discovery of NPM ± ALK as the speci®c lymphoma gene mutation, this NHL subtype could be rede®ned on the molecular level. This achievement was enhanced by the availability of speci®c antibodies that recognize ALK fusion proteins in para n-embedded lymphoma tissues. Several excellent recent reviews have summarized the histopathological and molecular ®ndings of ALCL and their use in the classi®cation of this lymphoma entity (Anagnostopoulos and Stein, 2000;Benharroch et al., 1998;Drexler et al., 2000;Foss et al., 2000;Gogusev and Nezelof, 1998;Kadin and Morris, 1998;Ladanyi, 1997;Morris et al., 2001;Shiota and Mori, 1996;Skinnider et al., 1999;Stein et al., 2000). This review will focus on the molecular function and signal transduction pathways activated by ALK fusion oncogenes, with recent advances and possible clinical implications to be discussed. Oncogene (2001) 20, 5623 ± 5637.