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©The Author(s) 2015. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Personalized targeted therapy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma
Xiaozheng Kang, Keneng Chen, Yicheng Li, Jianying Li, Thomas A D'Amico, Xiaoxin Chen
Xiaozheng Kang, Keneng Chen, Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), The First Department of Thoracic Surgery, Peking University Cancer Hospital and Institute, Beijing 100142, China
Yicheng Li, Xiaoxin Chen, Cancer Research Program, Julius L. Chambers Biomedical Biotechnology Research Institute, North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC 27707, United States
Jianying Li, Euclados Bioinformatics Solutions, LLC, Cary, NC 27519, United States
Thomas A D'Amico, Division of Thoracic Surgery, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27705, United States
Xiaoxin Chen, Center for Esophageal Disease and Swallowing, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Department of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27519, United States
Author contributions: Kang X and Chen X contributed to the literature review, drafting, and critical revision of the manuscript and formation of tables and figures; all authors commented on and approved of the final draft.
Supported by Grants from Beijing Academic Leaders Program, NO. 2009-2-17; Beijing Natural Science Foundation, No. 7102029; Capital Medical Developed Research Fund, No. 2007-1023; New Scholar Star Program of Ministry of Education; National Basic Research Program of China, No. 2011CB504300; Specialized Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education, No. 20130001110108; National Natural Science Foundation for Distinguished Young Scholars, No. 81301748; Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. IRT13003 and No. NIH/NCI U54 CA156735.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. D’Amico TA serves as a consultant for Scanlan; other authors have no potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Xiaoxin Chen, MD, PhD, Cancer Research Program, Julius L. Chambers Biomedical Biotechnology Research Institute, North Carolina Central University, 700 George Street, Durham, NC 27707, United States.
lchen@nccu.edu
Telephone: +1-919-5306425 Fax: +1-919-5307780
Received: February 4, 2015
Peer-review started: February 4, 2015
First decision: March 10, 2015
Revised: March 19, 2015
Accepted: April 28, 2015
Article in press: April 28, 2015
Published online: July 7, 2015
Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma continues to heavily burden clinicians worldwide. Researchers have discovered the genomic landscape of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma, which holds promise for an era of personalized oncology care. One of the most pressing problems facing this issue is to improve the understanding of the newly available genomic data, and identify the driver-gene mutations, pathways, and networks. The emergence of a legion of novel targeted agents has generated much hope and hype regarding more potent treatment regimens, but the accuracy of drug selection is still arguable. Other problems, such as cancer heterogeneity, drug resistance, exceptional responders, and side effects, have to be surmounted. Evolving topics in personalized oncology, such as interpretation of genomics data, issues in targeted therapy, research approaches for targeted therapy, and future perspectives, will be discussed in this editorial.
Core tip: Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma represents a heavy burden on clinicians worldwide. Recently, researchers have discovered the genomic landscape of this cancer, which holds promise for an era of personalized oncology care. Evolving topics in personalized oncology, such as interpretation of genomics data, critical issues in targeted therapy, research approaches, and future perspectives, are discussed in this editorial.
