To further confirm that TPM1 is regulated by miR-21 in ESCC, we evaluated the TPM1 protein expression in 8 clinical ESCC samples (including cancer tissues and matched adjacent normal tissues) that had higher miR-21 expression in the cancer tissue compared with the adjacent normal tissue by RT-qPCR (Figure 3(d)). The gene discussed is TPM1; the disease is esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.