The diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of SHOX2 promoter hypermethylation in the diagnosis of lung cancer were 0.75 (95%CI: 0.74-0.77) and 0.89 (95%CI: 0.88-0.91), respectively; The positive likelihood ratio value was 6.75 (4.56-9.99), and the negative predictive value was 0.36 (0.25-0.52); The diagnostic odds ratio was 23.16 (11.34-47.31), and the area under the ROC curve was 0.9. Here, SHOX2 is linked to lung carcinoma.