The invention relates to the use of choline kinase alpha as predictive marker for the determination of the response to a chemotherapeutic treatment in a subject suffering from cancer, particularly for predicting the clinical response of a subject suffering from non-small cell lung cancer to a platinum-based chemotherapeutic treatment. The invention relates to methods for designing a personalised therapy for subjects suffering from cancer, particularly from non-small cell lung cancer, based on the expression levels of choline kinase alpha as well as to methods for the treatment of non-small cell lung cancer using a platinum-based chemotherapeutic treatment based in a subject wherein the subject is selected based on the expression levels of choline kinase alpha.