PTX3 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: In line with these preclinical studies, the human PTX3 promoter and regulatory regions were shown to be epigenetically modified through hypermethylation in selected human mesenchymal and epithelial cancers, such as esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (111) and colorectal cancer (14, 18, 112), leading to silencing of PTX3 protein expression.