Although elafin mRNA or protein is known to be overexpressed in cancer tissues arising from normal squamous epithelium of head and neck, esophagus, and bronchi, when compared to adjacent normal tissues [5,6,10], there have been no studies, to our best knowledge, to examine the possible predictive or prognostic ability of its expression in locoregional ESCC patients (stage I-IIIA). The gene discussed is PI3; the disease is cancer.