The promoter methylation of another 6-cancer-specific gene panel was quantitatively investigated in sputum obtained from a prospective cohort of 210 patients (150 NSCLC patients and 60 controls), showing a high diagnostic accuracy for early-stage lung cancer, particularly for the genes TAC1, HOXA17 and SOX17 [19]. The gene discussed is TAC1; the disease is lung carcinoma.