MERTK

Overview

MERTK (MER proto-oncogene, tyrosine kinase) is a receptor tyrosine kinase of the TAM family (TYRO3, AXL, MERTK). It plays roles in phagocytosis, immune regulation, and cell survival signaling. In oncology, MERTK has been observed as a fusion partner in pan-cancer RNA-seq studies, forming recurrent kinase fusions with partners such as TMEM87B.

Alterations observed in the corpus

  • Recurrent singleton-pattern kinase fusion (TMEM87B–MERTK) identified in pan-cancer RNA-seq fusion analysis across 9,624 TCGA samples; flagged as a gene without a wiki entity at time of publication. PMID:29617662

Cancer types (linked)

  • Identified in pan-cancer context; specific cancer type(s) for TMEM87B–MERTK fusion not detailed in the corpus. PMID:29617662

Co-occurrence and mutual exclusivity

  • TMEM87B is the 5’ fusion partner driving MERTK kinase domain overexpression in the recurrent singleton-pattern fusion identified. PMID:29617662

Therapeutic relevance

  • MERTK is a kinase domain-containing fusion partner; druggability potential not explicitly assessed in the corpus.

Open questions

  • The TMEM87B–MERTK fusion was flagged as requiring confirmation against canonical HUGO symbols and a dedicated gene page. PMID:29617662

Sources

This page was processed by crosslinker on 2026-05-15.