Until now, cytokeratin 19 fragment antigen 21–1 (Cyfra21–1), carbohydrate antigen 19–9 (CA19–9), carbohydrate antigen 72–4 (CA72–4), carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) and squamous cell carcinoma antigen (SCC-Ag) have been reported to be commonly used in diagnosis and as prognostic predictors of a variety of cancers [6–11], including ESCC [5, 12, 13]. The gene discussed is CEACAM5; the disease is cancer.