After screening of chemotherapeutic agents, tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) or monoclonal antibody in combination with the putative stem cell killer Salinomycin (SAL), we found Metformin (METF), which modestly exerted a growth inhibitory effect on monolayer cells and alveospheres/CSCs of 5 NSCLC cell lines regardless of their EGFR, KRAS, EML4/ALK and LKB1 status, interacted synergistically with SAL to effectively promote cell death. Here, STK11 is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.