Investigations using human A549 lung cancer cells, FaDu hHNSCC cells, human HL60 leukemia cells or mouse fibroblasts provided evidence that cells either overexpressing a constitutively active kinase form of ILK or expressing a wildtype form of ILK are significantly more sensitive to irradiation than their normal or ILK knockout counterparts, respectively. Here, ILK is linked to leukemia.