The association of pIgR with intestinal differentiation in epithelial neoplasms is further supported by findings from our previous study on esophageal and gastric cancer, where pIgR expression was found to be significantly higher in both Barrett's esophagus and gastric intestinal metaplasia compared with normal squamous epithelium and gastric mucosa [17]. This evidence concerns the gene PIGR and epithelial neoplasm.