Additionally, knockdown of KRT18 has been reported to decrease the migration, and growth of cancer cells, and increase their sensitivity to chemotherapy, in non-small cell lung cancer, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma and renal cell carcinoma, suggesting that KRT18 has oncogenic potential in tumorigenesis (Ulukaya et al., 2007; Zhang et al., 2016; Yin et al., 2020). Here, KRT18 is linked to cancer.