At present, it is unclear to us as to why ALKBH3 would be more highly expressed in non-small-cell cancers than in small-cell lung carcinomas, although, in studies by other investigators, high ALKBH3 expression has been detected in adenocarcinomas of other organs, such as prostate and colon (Tasaki M et al, manuscript in preparation), which, therefore, raises the possibility that expression may be associated specifically with glandular epithelial tumourigenesis. Here, ALKBH3 is linked to small cell lung carcinoma.