Notably, the potentiation of TKI activity was apparently not at the cost of a loss in specificity, since starved breast cancer cells without HER2 amplification (MDA-MB-231 cells) were still insensitive to lapatinib and NSCLC without mutated EGFR or translocated ALK (A549 cells) remained insensitive to erlotinib and crizotinib despite starvation (Supplementary Figure 1C-E). Here, ALK is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.