In invasive carcinomas, the expression of GLUT-1 was much more pronounced than that of CA IX (quantified as the ratio of GLUT-1 positive pixels to CA IX positive pixels, which had a median value of 6.5), whereas this inequality was significantly less pronounced in dysplasias (p =0.018) and non-neoplastic tissues (p =0.000004), matching the lower overall expression of CA IX in invasive carcinomas (see also Additional file 1: Table S2). The gene discussed is CA9; the disease is invasive carcinoma.