In other gastrointestinal cancers, that is, colorectal and oesophageal cancer, the T-lymphocyte maturation associated protein MAL, involved in glycolipid-enriched membrane-mediated apical transport, has been described to be inactivated by promoter hypermethylation (Puertollano and Alonso, 1999; Mimori et al, 2003; Kazemi-Noureini et al, 2004; Mori et al, 2006; Lind et al, 2007). The gene discussed is MAL; the disease is carcinoma of esophagus.