Analyses of genetic changes in AMPK genes in cancer genome studies [20,23] show that, while PRKAA2 (encoding AMPK-α2) exhibits numerous mis-sense mutations in skin cancers (which might be expected of a tumour suppressor), the PRKAA1 gene is frequently amplified in lung cancers, more consistent with AMPK-α1 being a tumour promoter. Here, PRKAA1 is linked to cancer.