Data Processing :
The presence of miRNA was determined based on a corresponding microarray signal of greater than [the mean + 2 × standard deviation] of the negative controls signal, of which the top and bottom ranked ones by signal intensity were removed. Once a miRNA was considered present, the mean signal of the negative controls of which the top and bottom 5% ranked by signal intensity were removed was subtracted from the miRNA signal. When the signal value was negative (or undetEsophageal Cancerted) after background subtraction, the value was replaced by 0.1 on a base 2 logarithm scale.