We first examined expression levels of SUV39H2 in 16 normal and 14 lung cancer tissues (9 non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) cases and 5 SCLC cases) using quantitative real-time PCR analysis, and found that SUV39H2 was significantly upregulated in cancer cells compared with that in normal tissues (Fig. 1b,c). This evidence concerns the gene SUV39H2 and cancer.