Therapeutic Potential of Targeting Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts in Esophageal Cancer]

Advances in molecular and cellular biochemistry, such as the development of targeted cancer therapy, have dramatically improvedthe prognosis of cancer patients. Emerging data have suggestedthat bevacizumab treatment may act by controlling the cancer microenvironment. Many reports have examinedthe interaction of cancer cells with the tumor microenvironment, andcancer -associatedfibroblasts (CAFs)are thought to play a central role in this process. We speculatedthat the cancer microenvironment andin particular, CAFs, strongly influence the development of esophageal cancer. We have analyzedthe signaling pathways of molecular targets. However, inhibition of a single signaling pathway is insufficient to treat cancer effectively. Photoimmunotherapy is a molecular-targetedspecific cancer therapy using near-infraredrad iation, which was introduced by Mitsunaga et al. in 2011. We are using its specific methodof killing cells to target CAFs. We will report the results of its effect on cancer cells in the future.