The epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT) decreases the clinical activity of gefitinib and erlotinib and the sensitivity of NSCLC cells to these drugs [25, 26], and the transforming growth factor (TGF)-β/Smad signalling pathway plays an important role in EMT progression in various epithelial cell types [27, 28]. Here, TGFB1 is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.