The patients in the high and low AFR groups did not differ significantly from each other in age, gender, history of smoking, alcohol consumption habits, comorbidity morbidities, Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status (ECOG PS), tumor location, tumor size, lymph node, metastasis stage, tumor–nodes–metastasis (TNM) stage, gene mutation status of EGFR,EML4-ALK and K-ras, histology or chemotherapy regimens (P > 0.05). Here, ALK is linked to neoplasm.