A previous study has shown that PERK inhibition by siRNA or GSK2656157 (a small molecule inhibitor against the PERK/elF2α/ATF4 pathway) might improve clinical prognosis and enhance the treatment of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients (Wang et al., 2017), but little research is reported in other types of cancers. This evidence concerns the gene ATF4 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.