The results of a Chi-square test revealed that higher NHE9 levels were associated with a poor pathological complete response (P < 0.001) and less changes in the T (P = 0.045) or N (P = 0.039) stage after CRT; however, no significant correlations were observed between the NHE9 expression level and other patient characteristics, including age, gender, BMI, tumor location, clinical stage, and lymph node stage change (Table 2). The gene discussed is SLC9A9; the disease is neoplasm.