Moreover, it has been revealed that a functional variant in the TNXB promoter is associated with risk of esophageal squamous-cell carcinoma (ESCC) in the Chinese population, leading to the expression of TNXB being downregulated in ESCC tissues (Chang et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2020). Here, TNXB is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.