Yokota T, et al. - Researchers assessed gene alteration profiles of cancer-related genes in Japanese esophageal cancer patients by performing next-generation sequencing using surgically resected formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue. They also correlated those profiles with clinicopathological features, such as smoking status and survival outcomes. Via amplicon-based massively parallel sequencing, they identified frequent gene alterations in TP53 (66.7%), PIK3CA (13.5%), APC (10.3%), ERBB4 (7.9%), and FBXW7 (7.9%). No link was observed between clinicopathological features or prognosis with smoking status. Not only profiles of cancer-related genes were identified by next-generation sequencing in this study, but also PIK3CA mutation was identified as a favorable prognosis biomarker.