Surprisingly, no DMCs were found in TP53. Among DMC-correlated TF genes, some have been implicated in the progression of ESCC, including zinc finger genes such as ZNF382, ZNF582 and ZNF66728,30,31 and Homeobox genes such as BARX1, HOXA13 and HOXC10.32–34 All 7 CpG sites at the promoter of ZNF382, a NF-κB inhibitor frequently downregulated in ESCC,28,35 were recurrently hyper-methylated in our data: at least one of the 7 DMCs were found in 75.82% (69/91) ESCC genomes. This evidence concerns the gene NFKB1 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.