CTHRC1 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: CTHRC1 is the most widely studied and has been consistently shown to be upregulated across multiple cancer types (e.g., gastric cancer, pancreatic cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, epithelial ovarian cancer, esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, cervical cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma), aligning with our observation of its elevated expression in WT [40–43].