Since human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) was first documented for PEP-based PGAM1 phosphorylation (Vander Heiden et al, 2010), A549 cell line was chosen as a representative to investigate the significance and mechanism of PKM2–PGAM1 interaction in most experiments of the present study. The gene discussed is PGAM1; the disease is non-small cell lung carcinoma.