Finally, 18 SMGs were identified (Fig. 2, Supplementary Table 6), 15 of which had been previously reported in ESCC (TP53, AJUBA, CDKN2A, KMT2D(MLL2), ZNF750, FAT1, NOTCH1, NOTCH3, PIK3CA, NFE2L2, RB1, KDM6A, FBXW7, CREBBP, and TGFBR2). Here, NFE2L2 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.