In order to explore the distribution of TP53 mutations in lung cancer and their impact on survival in the different histological subgroups, we have investigated TP53 mutations in 394 non-small cell lung carcinomas, and correlated this with smoking history and clinical data, such as survival, stage, tumor size, EGFR mutation status and histology. The gene discussed is TP53; the disease is non-small cell lung carcinoma.