Interestingly, we did not observe any meaningful alteration in β-catenin expression or in hallmarks of EMT [49], namely, E-Cadherin and vimentin, after CTHRC1 knockdown in ESCC cell lines (Additional file 5: Figure S3), suggesting that an alternative hypothesis is needed to explain findings for ESCC. This evidence concerns the gene CDH1 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.