As a matter of fact, in order to elucidate the prognostic role of fascin in NSCLC it was necessary to analyse retrospectively a large series of tumours with long-term follow-up (just like our series), and frozen tissue (the most suitable and reliable material for RT-PCR assessment) had not been collected at that time. The gene discussed is FSCN1; the disease is non-small cell lung carcinoma.