SPP1 and lung carcinoma: Osteopontin, another protein that has been implicated in tissue remodeling, is significantly higher in serum from patients with lung cancer compared with healthy volunteers, and moreover, when smoking history was considered, the levels of circulating osteopontin were higher in smokers than in nonsmoking and ex-smoking lung cancer patients [31], suggesting that smoking status is an important parameter that must be taken into account when searching for new lung cancer biomarkers.