PLCE1 and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma: PLCE1 hydrolyzes PIP2 to produce two important secondary messengers, DAG and IP3, which trigger Ca2+ release from the endoplasmic reticulum into the cytoplasm to activate PKC (Harden et al., 2009; Kadamur and Ross, 2013), suggesting that PKC activation is responsible for PLCE1-induced cell migration and invasion in ESCC.