PTK2 and esophageal cancer: The poor prognosis induced by RACK1 expression may be explained by the following mechanisms: first, in non-small cell lung cancer, RACK1 plays a key role in carcinogenesis by activating the AKT and FAK pathways (Wu et al., 2021); second, RACK1 might promote the development of esophageal cancer by activating the RAS/MEK/ERK pathway (Li et al., 2022); and third, RACK1 could accelerate the progression of OSCC via the AKT/mTOR pathway (Zhang et al., 2016).