In the present study, we reveal that circPTK2 inhibits TGF-β-induced EMT by up-regulating TIF1γ in NSCLC, and establish a novel mechanistic role of circPTK2-TIF1γ axis in regulating TGF-β-induced EMT (Additional file 11: Figure S8). Here, TGFB1 is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.