SPINK1 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: Well-known examples here are the population-specific enrichment of BRCA1 gene variants in persons of Ashkenazi jewish ancestry compared to mixed-reference populations [6]; the higher somatic mutation frequencies for TP53, EP300 and NFE2L2 in Chinese patients suffering from esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) compared to ‘Caucasian’ patients [7] or the significant molecular differences existing between prostate cancers in ‘African Americans’ vs. ‘Caucasicans’ (SPINK1 overexpression, ERG rearrangement and PTEN deletion are less frequent in the first group)[8].