We detected CD117 expression in 29.9% of oesophageal SCC tumours, which was lower than the CD117-positive rate of 37–87.7% in small-cell lung cancer, but within the CD117-positive rate of 26–73% in ovarian carcinoma.19–24 We found that there was no CD117 expression in the 10 normal oesophageal epithelia adjacent to tumours. Here, KIT is linked to neoplasm.