ADAM12 and cancer: For example, ADAM12, a biomarker of cancer stem cell phenotype which has been reported to promote esophageal squamous cell carcinomas invasion [50, 51], was upregulated in high-invasiveness ESCA patients (logFC = 2.01, FDR = 2.92 × 10−22), and showed hypomethylation in the promoter region (logFC, or delta-β = − 0.25, FDR = 0.0005).