To confirm whether YTHDF1 was negatively associated with AKR1C1, we performed immunostaining for AKR1C1 in the NSCLC TMA again, and revealed that 70.6% (192/272) of YTHDF1 positive NSCLC tissues were AKR1C1 negative, whereas 40.5% (87/215) YTHDF1 negative NSCLC tissues were AKR1C1 positive, (p = 0.012), and a similar negative correlation between YTHDF1 and AKR1C1 expression was also validated by western blot in the same clinical tissues as used in Fig. 2 (Fig. 5g–j). Here, AKR1C1 is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.