CD44 and esophageal cancer: Although we had expected a possible association of AF1q with CD44 in GC since our recent study in esophageal cancer patients12, no association was found in the samples of this GC patient cohort, where AF1q was abundantly expressed compared to CD44 (AF1q: n = 178, 97.8% vs. CD44: n = 64, 35.2%), which is likely the reason for the lacking correlation between these markers.