Lung cancer is the biggest cause of cancer mortality in the world and has one of the worst survival rates of any solid tumour. Around 75–80% of all cases of lung cancer diagnosed are non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC).
Multicolour fluorescent in situ hybridisation (M-FISH) is a karyotyping technique that uses whole chromosome paints (WCP) to label each chromosome a unique colour. Use of this technique facilitates the karyotyping of tumour cells and allows the identification of marker chromosomes and complex chromosomal rearrangements that would previously have been uninterpretable.