BACH1 and metastatic malignant neoplasm in the lymph nodes: We validated the anti-BACH1 autoantibody findings by immunoblotting using a larger independent cohort (Fig. 2A), including 122 healthy controls, 39 early-stage ESCC patients, 50 ESCC patients without lymph node metastasis, and 78 ESCC patients with lymph node metastasis.