We were not able to directly assess the influence of chemotherapy on tumor BRCA1 expression, but the lack of BRCA1 mRNA increase in bronchial cells or lung cancer cell lines on chemotherapy exposure indicates that neo-adjuvant chemotherapy had no influence on BRCA1 content in our patients, and that such treatment cannot account for the prognostic discrepancies with previously published papers. Here, BRCA1 is linked to lung carcinoma.