FOXE1 and thyroid cancer: Genetic studies have identified germline allelic variation in and near FOXE1 to be strongly associated with the thyroid cancer risk, including single-nucleotide variants rs965513[A] (56 kb upstream of FOXE1) [10,11,12] and rs1867277[A] (within its promoter) [13], as well as variations within the FOXE1 polyalanine tract [14], which has a variable length ranging from 11 to 22 alanine residues.