Approximately 2–7% NSCLC patients harbor anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) gene rearrangements (3, 4), leading to aberrant expression and oncogenic activation of ALK. Echinoderm microtubule-associated protein-like 4 (EML4)-ALK is the canonical and most common ALK gene arrangement found in NSCLC, by which multiple EML4 breakpoints fuse in frame with the kinase domain of ALK (5). Here, EML4 is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.