Actually, translational research in patients with advanced NSCLC in whom gefitinib therapy recommended has been limited by the scarcity of available tumour biopsy tissue, and tumour samples for genetic research were only available for 12.7 and 44.5%, respectively, of patients enrolled in two large phase III clinical studies with EGFR-TKIs (Tsao et al, 2005; Hirsch et al, 2006). The gene discussed is EGFR; the disease is neoplasm.