Although an association of Axin with carcinogenesis has been reported in colon cancer cell lines (Webster et al, 2000), HCC (Satoh et al, 2000; Laurent-Puig et al, 2001) and medulloblastoma (Dahmen et al, 2001), to our knowledge there has been no report concerning oesophageal SCC. The gene discussed is AXIN1; the disease is colonic neoplasm.