To explore the expression profile of METTL3 in ESCC, which constitutes ~90% of oesophageal cancer28, we analysed the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) data and found that METTL3 expression was significantly upregulated in 95 ESCC specimens compared to that in 11 adjacent normal oesophageal epithelium tissues (Fig. 1a and Supplementary Fig. 1a). The gene discussed is METTL3; the disease is esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.