The expression levels of seven candidate genes were detected in GSE23400 datasets, such as TIAF1, GOLGA7B, GOLA1, LAMB3, ARNT2, PPARG and CDKN1A. As shown in Fig. 5, the difference in expression levels of GOLGA7B (Fig. 5B), GOLGA1 (Fig. 5C), ARNT2 (Fig. 5E) and CDKN1A (Fig. 5G) between ESCC and matched mucosa tissues was not significant. Here, ARNT2 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.