Using parameters previously defined for IC50 for drug sensitive versus drug-resistant NSCLC [51], we identified three drugs for which lower ACOX2 mRNA expression was associated with resistance to 17-AAG (r = − 0.2399, p = 0.0344) a HSP90 inhibitor, PD-0325901 (r = -0.3472, p = 0.0018) a MEK inhibitor, and Crizotinib (r = − 0.2307, p = 0.0422) a c-MET/ALK inhibitor as shown in Fig. 6. Here, ALK is linked to non-small cell lung carcinoma.