Belkhiri Abbes, El-Rifai Wael
Department of Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee 37232, USA.
Department of Veterans Affairs, Tennessee Valley Healthcare System, Nashville, Tennessee 37212, USA.
Oncotarget. 2015 Jan 30;6(3):1348-58. doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.2752.
Esophageal cancer, comprising squamous carcinoma and adenocarcinoma, is a leading cause of cancer-related death in the world. Notably, the incidence of esophageal adenocarcinoma has increased at an alarming rate in the Western world. Unfortunately, the standard first-line chemo-radiotherapeutic approaches are toxic and of limited efficacy in the treatment of a significant number of cancer patients. The molecular analysis of cancer cells has uncovered key genetic and epigenetic alterations underlying the development and progression of tumors. These discoveries have paved the way for the emergence of targeted therapy approaches. This review will highlight recent progress in the development of targeted therapies in esophageal cancer. This will include a review of drugs targeting receptor tyrosine kinases and other kinases in esophageal cancer. Additional studies will be required to develop a rational integration of these targeted agents with respect to histologic types of esophageal cancer and the optimal selection of cancer patients who would most likely benefit from targeted therapy. Identification of AURKA and AXL as key molecular players in esophageal tumorigenesis and drug resistance strongly justifies the evaluation of the available drugs against these targets in clinical trials.
食管癌包括鳞状细胞癌和腺癌，是全球癌症相关死亡的主要原因。值得注意的是，在西方世界，食管腺癌的发病率以惊人的速度上升。不幸的是，标准的一线放化疗方法有毒性，并且在治疗大量癌症患者时疗效有限。对癌细胞的分子分析揭示了肿瘤发生和发展背后的关键基因和表观遗传改变。这些发现为靶向治疗方法的出现铺平了道路。本综述将重点介绍食管癌靶向治疗发展的最新进展。这将包括对食管癌中靶向受体酪氨酸激酶和其他激酶的药物的综述。需要进一步的研究来合理整合这些靶向药物，考虑食管癌的组织学类型以及最有可能从靶向治疗中获益的癌症患者的最佳选择。鉴定AURKA和AXL为食管肿瘤发生和耐药中的关键分子参与者，有力地证明了在临床试验中评估针对这些靶点的现有药物的合理性。
