In this study, we collected lung tumour specimens from 8 NSCLC chemotherapy naive patients undergoing surgery as well as surrounding cancer-free lung tissues and: a) investigated activation status of ERK, AKT, IKBα and ΝF-κβ; b) defined novel specific biomarkers for NSCLC diagnosis by means of a differential label-free proteomic analysis. Here, AKT1 is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.