We next examined the TIGAR protein expression by IHC staining in tissue arrays derived from surgically removed 225 ESCC samples and found that 177 (78.6%) of the samples had significantly higher TIGAR expression (as measured by the IHC score) than the corresponding adjacent normal tissues (P < 1.93e-33) (Figure 2A). Here, TIGAR is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.