TEK and thyroid cancer: Alterations in TEK expression have been observed in many cancers, such as oral squamous cell carcinoma; leukemia; and breast, gastric, and thyroid cancers (Mitsutake et al., 2002; He et al., 2015; Chen et al., 2016; Cortes-Santiago et al., 2016; Kitajima et al., 2016).