High BRCA1 mRNA expression has been associated with increased risk of relapse in patients with early (stage IB–IIB) NSCLC (Bartolucci et al, 2009), whereas BRCA1 haplotype could predict the outcome of NSCLC cancer patients treated with platinum-based chemotherapy, especially of those with squamous cell histology (Kim et al, 2008); these findings could explain the lack of significant association between BRCA1 expression and efficacy of the DC regimen observed in this study. The gene discussed is BRCA1; the disease is cancer.