Yamauchi et al (2001) found that, in contrast to breast and lung cancer, nuclear expression of BAG-1 in laryngeal tumours conferred a worse disease-free survival after radiotherapy. In oral squamous cell carcinomas, Shindoh et al (2000) demonstrated increased BAG-1 expression in tumour tissue relative to adjacent normal epithelium in 60–80% of samples. By contrast, our study of 64 oral squamous cell carcinomas and 17 samples of normal oral epithelium, revealed reduced nuclear BAG-1 expression in oral squamous cell carcinomas (P=0.036) compared to normal oral epithelium (Hague et al, 2002). This evidence concerns the gene BAG1 and lung cancer.