Table 1. Gene Ontology Analysis.

GO category	Direction	adjusted p	Previous findings related to esophageal cancer
Metalloendopeptidase Activity	Up	<0.0001	Matrix metalloproteinases 21 and 26 in esophageal squamous cell cancer25 *
Metallopeptidase Activity	Up	<0.0001	Matrix metalloproteinase 9 and 13 in esophageal cancer27
Collagen	Up	<0.0001	Increased expression of integrins in human esophageal cancer cells28
Proteinaceous Extracellular Matrix	Up	0.001	Activin29, Periostin30 in esophageal cancers
Extracellular Matrix Part	Up	<0.0001	NA
Ectoderm Development	Down	<0.0001	NA
Epidermis Development	Down	<0.0001	NA
Tissue_Development	Down	0.002	NA
Intermediate Filament	Down	0.001	Cytokeratin 4 and 13 in esophageal cancers34
Intermediate Filament Cytoskeleton	Down	0.001	Microtubes in esophageal cancers33

^*Indicates the reference number in the main text.