Consistent with studies in several other tumour entities, including breast cancer and pancreatic ADC (Maacke et al, 2000a, 2000b; Han et al, 2002; Raderschall et al, 2002), our results demonstrate that Rad51 is overexpressed in tumour cell nuclei in NSCLC compared to normal tissues. This evidence concerns the gene RAD51 and neoplasm.