ALK and non-small cell lung carcinoma: To summarize, our analysis supports the fact that, although ALK pattern B seems to appear early in the tumorigenesis of NSCLC and might mirror an early genomic instability, an high ALK gene copy number (>7, pattern C) related to polyploidy, could be considered as a cut off to discriminate genomically unstable and smoking-related NSCLC featured by an aggressive biological behavior, frequently in advanced stage and with a poor awaited prognostic outcome.