miRNA profile as a predictor of response to chemoradiation therapy for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Esophageal cancer is estimated to be the eighth most common cancer in the world (456,000 cases) and the sixth most common cause of death (400,000 deaths) (1). Esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is one of the major histological types of esophageal cancer. Despite the development of multimodality therapies such as surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, the prognosis of ESCC patients remains dismal. Given this background, predicting the clinical and prognostic outcome of ESCC patients is of considerable importance.