Significantly, miR-143, a tumor suppressor in human cancers, including ESCC [55, 56], and a known negative regulator of HK2 [36], was down-regulated 1.8-fold (P = 0.0136) in the highly proliferative ZD esophagus as compared to its non-proliferative counterpart vs ZS [28]. This evidence concerns the gene HK2 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.