Besides, inhibition of Smad3-dependent long non-coding RNA erb-b2 receptor tyrosine kinase 4 intracellular domain fragment (Erbb4-IR) suppresses the proliferation of esophageal SCC by upregulating the tumor suppressor gene miRNA-145 to activate cancer cells apoptosis [189]. Here, SMAD3 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.