In cell lines belonging to these groups, we first checked the high expression of ASCL1 and NEUROD1 transcriptional factors, which are known to be required for the proper development of pulmonary neuroendocrine cells (Borges et al, 1997; Ito et al, 2000; Neptune et al, 2008), for carcinogenesis, and for the survival of a majority of lung cancer cells with neuroendocrine features (Jiang et al, 2009; Borromeo et al, 2016). Here, ASCL1 is linked to lung cancer.