Although demethylation of the CTHRC1 genomic region (-391 to +4 bp) in gastric cancer cells [30], in the first exon in colon cancer [16], and at -628 to -269 of the promoter region in hepatocellular carcinoma [29] has been reported, we did not find significant demethylation at those CpG sites in ESCC tumour tissues. The gene discussed is CTHRC1; the disease is gastric cancer.