Although overexpression of maspin is present in the pancreas (Maass et al, 2001), ovary (Xia et al, 2000), gastric (Son et al, 2002) and non-small-cell lung cancer (Heighway et al, 2002), there have been no reports describing a positive correlation of the maspin mRNA expression and lymph node metastasis. The gene discussed is SERPINB5; the disease is non-small cell lung carcinoma.