As shown in Kaplan–Meier curves in Figure 4, the OS time of the patients in the high expression group was significantly different than that in low expression group (DAPK2, p = 0.0037; DIRAS3, p = 0.0037; EIF2AK3, p < 0.0001; ITPR1, p = 0.0013; MAP1LC3C, p = 0.0024; TP53, p = 0.015), suggesting that expression levels of the six autophagy genes were closely related to survival of ESCC patients. Here, DAPK2 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.