Department of Zoology, Central University of Kashmir, Ganderbal, Jammu and Kashmir 191201, India.
Department of Human Genetics-Precision Medicine in Diabetes, Obesity and Cancer Program, Sidra Medicine, Doha 26999, Qatar.
Biomed Pharmacother. 2024 Jul;176:116873. doi: 10.1016/j.biopha.2024.116873. Epub 2024 Jun 5.
Esophageal cancer (EC) is significantly influenced by the tumor microenvironment (TME) and altered signaling pathways. Downregulating these pathways in EC is essential for suppressing tumor development, preventing metastasis, and enhancing therapeutic outcomes. This approach can increase tumor sensitivity to treatments, enhance patient outcomes, and inhibit cancer cell proliferation and spread. The TME, comprising cellular and non-cellular elements surrounding the tumor, significantly influences EC's development, course, and treatment responsiveness. Understanding the complex relationships within the TME is crucial for developing successful EC treatments. Immunotherapy is a vital TME treatment for EC. However, the heterogeneity within the TME limits the application of anticancer drugs outside clinical settings. Therefore, identifying reliable microenvironmental biomarkers that can detect therapeutic responses before initiating therapy is crucial. Combining approaches focusing on EC signaling pathways with TME can enhance treatment outcomes. This integrated strategy aims to interfere with essential signaling pathways promoting cancer spread while disrupting factors encouraging tumor development. Unraveling aberrant signaling pathways and TME components can lead to more focused and efficient treatment approaches, identifying specific cellular targets for treatments. Targeting the TME and signaling pathways may reduce metastasis risk by interfering with mechanisms facilitating cancer cell invasion and dissemination. In conclusion, this integrative strategy has significant potential for improving patient outcomes and advancing EC research and therapy. This review discusses the altered signaling pathways and TME in EC, focusing on potential future therapeutics.
食管癌（EC）受肿瘤微环境（TME）和改变的信号通路显著影响。在 EC 中下调这些通路对于抑制肿瘤发展、防止转移以及增强治疗效果至关重要。这种方法可以增加肿瘤对治疗的敏感性，改善患者预后，并抑制癌细胞的增殖和扩散。TME 由肿瘤周围的细胞和非细胞成分组成，对 EC 的发展、进程和治疗反应性有重要影响。了解 TME 中的复杂关系对于开发成功的 EC 治疗方法至关重要。免疫疗法是 EC 的重要 TME 治疗方法。然而，TME 中的异质性限制了抗癌药物在临床环境之外的应用。因此，确定可靠的微环境生物标志物，以便在开始治疗前检测治疗反应，是至关重要的。结合针对 EC 信号通路和 TME 的方法可以增强治疗效果。这种综合策略旨在干扰促进癌症扩散的关键信号通路，同时破坏促进肿瘤发展的因素。阐明异常信号通路和 TME 成分可以导致更有针对性和更有效的治疗方法，确定治疗的特定细胞靶标。靶向 TME 和信号通路可能通过干扰促进癌细胞侵袭和扩散的机制来降低转移风险。总之，这种综合策略具有显著提高患者预后和推进 EC 研究和治疗的潜力。本综述讨论了 EC 中改变的信号通路和 TME，重点介绍了潜在的未来治疗方法。
