TRIM24 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: More important, our study shows that lower expression level of TRIM24 protein is associated with more lymph node metastasis, advanced pTNM stage and postoperative recurrence/metastasis, signifying that TRIM24 protein mainly functions as tumor suppressor in early development of ESCC and loss of TRIM24 protein may result in the progression of ESCC.