Most heart attacks happen when a clot in the coronary artery blocks the supply of blood and oxygen to the heart. Often this leads to an irregular heartbeat-called an arrhythmia-that causes a severe decrease in the pumping function of the heart.
The abnormal FIG-ROS fusion protein has constitutively active kinase activity that causes oncogenic transformation (a transformation from normal cells to cancer cells). Chromosomal inversion s: reversing the orientation of a chromosomal segment.
Illustration of how a normal cell is converted to a cancer cell, when an oncogene becomes activated. An oncogene is a gene that has the potential to cause cancer. In tumor cells, they are often mutated or expressed at high levels. Most normal cells will undergo a programmed form of rapid cell death (apoptosis) when critical functions are altered.