Independent verification of the methylation status of the ESCCAL-1 promoter region showed 62.5% (20/32) hypomethylation in ESCC tumors versus 71.8% (23/32) hypermethylation in adjacent normal tissues (chi square test p value < 0.01) (Fig. 6d, e). The gene discussed is CASC9; the disease is esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.