In the USA, lung cancer has an incidence of 225 000 patients every year leading to approximately 160 000 deaths.1 Over the last several years, the development of targeted therapeutics for the treatment of patients with non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with specific genetic changes, such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations, echinoderm microtubule-associated protein like-4-anaplastic lymphoma kinase (EML4/ALK) fusion and c-ros oncogene 1 (ROS1) fusions, have led to exciting new treatment options for these patients. This evidence concerns the gene ALK and non-small cell lung carcinoma.