ZFAS1 and lung cancer: ZFAS1 and ZNFX1 expression in primary specimens of lung cancer. To determine if alterations in ZFAS1 and ZNFX1 expression were potentially relevant to pulmonary carcinogenesis, we performed qRT-PCR experiments to evaluate ZFAS1 and ZNFX1 activation in a randomly selected panel of 51 primary NSCLC and adjacent lung tissues with normal histology from 42 smokers/former smokers and 9 never smokers.