Immunologic function of dendritic cells in esophageal cancer.

Esophageal cancer is one of the frequently occurring malignant cancers. The current therapy, including surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, or a combination, is only to palliate the symptoms; overall the prognosis is poor. The immunotherapy of dendritic cells for esophageal cancer is a valuable method. Dendritic cells existing in the esophageal tissues play an important role in the host's immunosurveillance against cancer as the professional antigen-presenting cells. This review concerns the immunology of dendritic cells in esophageal cancer; it describes the expression of DCs in the normal esophageal tissues and benign disease of esophagus, relations between the DCs and cancer development in esophageal cancer, and the DC-based approach to establish treatment for esophageal cancer.