P2RX7 and non-small cell lung carcinoma: In a study analyzing P2X7 mRNA expression in 26 patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC), compared with 21 patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) without signs of malignancy, higher P2X7 expression was observed in bronchoalveolar lavage derived cells of tumors with distant metastases (Schmid et al., 2015).