The percentages of positive ezrin, ezrinThr-567 and ezrinTyr-353 cells were significantly higher in poorly differentiated NSCLC cases (85.2%, 88.9% and 92.6%, respectively) compared with well differentiated NSCLC (50.0%, 47.1% and 61.8%, respectively) and moderately differentiated NSCLC cases (60.7%, 61.8% and 68.5%, respectively) (P < 0.01). The gene discussed is EZR; the disease is non-small cell lung carcinoma.