ME3 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: ME2 (Wilcoxon rank-sum test, MET vs AN, p = 0.01; ESCC vs AN, p < 0.001; MET vs ESCC, p = 0.37) and ME3 (Wilcoxon rank-sum test, MET vs AN, p = 0.04; ESCC vs AN, p = 0.001; MET vs ESCC, p = 0.46) subclusters were predominantly collected from tumor samples and metastatic lymph nodes, indicating that ME2 and ME3 subclusters may have a high metastatic potential (Fig. 2b).