Accumulating evidence suggests that copper chaperones may play an important role in the oncogenesis of lung cancer since: i) a high expression level of Cox17 was detected in lung cancer and Cox17 has been implied as a therapeutic target (20) and ii) ATOX1 is a cytosolic copper chaperone which plays a role in regulating cell proliferation by functioning as a transcription factor in the cell growth signal-transduction pathway (21,22). Here, COX17 is linked to lung carcinoma.