The receptor tyrosine kinase Flt3 is expressed on the blasts of a high proportion of AML cases. We were interested in the expression and function of Flt3 on various human tumors. human tumor cell lines were tested for Flt3 expression by northern blot analysis and RT-PCR using head/neck (n=3), breast (n=4), ovarian (n=4), small cell lung (n=2), non-small cell lung (n=2), gastric (n=1), colon (n=3), pancreatic (n=1) and prostate carcinoma (n=1), choriocarcinoma (n=1), glioblastoma (n=5), neuroblastoma (n=1), melanoma (n=3), lymphoma (n=1), Hodgkin's disease (n=2), and leukemic (n=6) cell lines. With no expression on the other cell samples, 3 of 6 leukemic cell lines showed expression of Flt3 mRNA. The cDNA region corresponding to the juxtamembrane domain did not show any mutation as determined by sequence analysis. In all 3 positive cell lines, protein expression was verified by immunoprecipitation followed by immunoblot analysis. Although Flt3 is functional in these cell lines, as judged by ligand-dependent receptor autophosphorylation, it only mediates a proliferative response in 2 of the 3 cell lines. In conclusion, Flt3 is expressed exclusively in hematopoietic malignancies. Although early signalling events are detectable in all Flt3-positive cell lines tested, the expression of Flt3 does not predict a proliferative response of the cell lines. No internal tandem duplication of the juxtamembrane domain can be observed.