In the studies included, the types of tumor were NSCLC, lung adenocarcinomas; types of tissue were tumor tissue and pleural effusion; ALK fusion were EML4-ALK and ALK; specimens for PCR and FISH were FFPE, cytological smears and fresh frozen; the types of PCR were quantitative real time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) and end-point PCR, the cut-offs for FISH in the included studies were different, and most studies hadn’t reported the principle of PCR. Here, ALK is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.