Consistent with the present results, Fu et al (12) recently revealed that the expression of SLC22A3 in non-tumorous tissues of patients with familial esophageal cancer is significantly downregulated, and adenosine-to-inosine RNA editing of this gene leads to downregulation of its expression and is significantly associated with lymph node metastasis. This evidence concerns the gene SLC22A3 and esophageal cancer.