As shown in Fig 3C, a transcription factor ELF3, which is expressed in human IMA, was highly correlated with VTCN1 in both the 105 human NSCLC cell lines (Klijn et al, 2015) and the 230 TCGA LUAD cases (Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network, 2014), suggesting that ELF3 may be a regulator of VTCN1. Further studies using additional IMA cell lines other than A549 cells are required to elucidate the mechanism by which VTCN1 is regulated in IMA. This evidence concerns the gene ELF3 and non-small cell lung carcinoma.