Wu Z, et al. - Among 301 patients receiving epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors (EGFR-TKIs) for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer, researchers examined the link between the level of serum ferritin (SF) and EGFR mutations and assessed the influence of SF level on survival times. The participants were admitted to the Chinese PLA general hospital from August 2015 to August 2017. They noted that 52.5% (158/301) of the overall study sample had EGFR mutations present. The detection of EGFR mutations was more likely in younger (<60 years old), adenocarcinoma patients, non-smokers, women, CEA ≥ 5 μg/L and serum ferritin ≥ 129 μg/L for females or ≥ 329 μg/L for males. A moderate diagnostic accuracy of SF was revealed as a significant predictor of EGFR mutation, and improved diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for EGFR mutations were achieved when SF and CEA were combined. Also, the utility of SF as a predictor of survival in EGFR-TKIs was shown, as patients with higher SF experienced shorter progression-free survival.