The SPARC methylation levels were firstly evaluated on DNA obtained from a learning cohort of 21 paired lung non-neoplastic/NSCLC tissues (Supplementary Table S1) and a statistically significant difference in methylation levels was detected between paired non-neoplastic and tumor tissues (p = 0.006; Wilcoxon signed rank test). The gene discussed is SPARC; the disease is non-small cell lung carcinoma.