CRIPTO and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: Our aim in this study was to evaluate the impact of TWIST1 ectopic expression on the expression pattern of stemness and self-renewal-associated genes, including BMI1, CRIPTO1, DPPA2, KLF4, SOX2, NANOG, and MSI1 in ESCC cell line KYSE-30, to elucidate possible crosstalk between TWIST1 and the self-renewal state of the cells.