This additional diagnostic feature of the SMART assay will not only improve the diagnosis of EML4-ALK fusions in NSCLC, but potentially with clever primer design, will allow the development of new SMART assays for the specific detection and identification of other ALK fusion variants such as the NPM-ALK fusion associated with anaplastic large cell lymphomas [46], and obviate reliance on FISH and IHC as the gold standard techniques for detection of ALK fusions. The gene discussed is EML4; the disease is non-small cell lung carcinoma.