The biological role of LCK in cancer cell motility, as described herein, supports the concept of lymphocyte mimicry, a cellular differentiation program which enables a transformed epithelium to adopt a behavior normally restricted to lymphocytes, including anchorage-independent mobilization, thereby gaining metastatic properties as it has been shown, e.g., in lung cancer cells overexpressing the lineage-specific transcription factor Aiolos [59]. The gene discussed is LCK; the disease is lung carcinoma.