Lung cancer is a disease with high incidence and mortality (1 ). The prognosis for patients with lung cancer is most favorable when tumors are detected early in a surgically resectable stage of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Methods that can increase the percentage of cases of lung cancer detected in early stage may theoretically lead to a decrease in mortality. However, in the past, screening programs for early detection of lung cancer that used chest X-ray of the thorax with or without sputum cytology have not been successful in reducing the high numbers of lung cancer deaths (2 –5 ). Therefore, new approaches that use genetic alterations as potential biomarkers may be beneficial for early detection.
