The finding that the stromal expression, in particular, is increased is of interest, given the known effect of “pathological” stroma in the pathogenesis of esophageal cancer.37 Our observed region coincides within 225 bp of a CTCF and RAD21 transcription factor binding site, further suggesting that methylation there has a functional effect to prevent transcription factor binding and alter gene expression. Here, RAD21 is linked to esophageal cancer.