Three of the four DMCs associated with the survival time in ESCC patients, cg23378365, cg06090867, cg03244277 locate at the promoters of CYFIP2, UBXN10 and AREG, respectively; cg02370667 resides in the gene-body of NECAB2. The expression levels of these genes showed no significant difference between high and low methylation groups of each marker except for NECAB2 (Supplementary Fig. S8m−p). This evidence concerns the gene NECAB2 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.