全世界每年有20万人死于食管癌。我国是食管癌高发区，食管鳞状细胞癌占绝大多数。分子病因学研究揭示食管鳞状细胞癌中存在Hedgehog（Hh）通路的异常激活。近年来在前列腺癌和胰腺癌的研究中，对Hh通路在肿瘤细胞和基质细胞中的作用提出新的观点- - 肿瘤细胞分泌的Hh配体可激活基质细胞中Hh通路，即旁分泌Hh通路。Hh通路旁分泌的研究在食管鳞状细胞癌中仍是空白， Hh通路抑制剂对食管鳞状细胞癌基质细胞的作用也尚无报道。新近的研究显示，肿瘤生物治疗在肿瘤的靶向治疗以及综合治疗中起重要作用,寻找新型靶向性治疗途径已经成为世界范围内研究的热点。因此我们提出假说：Hh通路抑制剂和ACBP-3是否可以抑制食管鳞状细胞癌细胞和基质细胞的增殖、诱导其凋亡？以及二者是否具有协同作用？期望为食道癌治疗学的研究提供科学依据。

Worldwide, about 200,000 patients are dead of esophageal cancer every year. China is one of the high incidence areas of esophageal cancer, and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) is the major type of esophageal cancer. Studies found aberrant active hedgehog (Hh) pathway in ESCC. Recently, research in prostate and pancreatic cancer revealed that Hh ligand secreted from cancer cells could active Hh pathway in adjacent stromal cells, so called paracrine Hh pathway. There are no reports on either paracine Hh pathway in ESCC or effect of Hh pathway inhibitor on stormal cells in ESCC. Biotherapy plays an important role in targeted and comprehensive therapy of cancer treatment. Scitentists around the world are looking for novel targeted therapy to improve prognosis of cancer.Therefore, we plan to investigate whether Hh pathway inhibitor and ACBP-3 can inhibit proliferation and induce apoptosis of cancer and stormal cells in ESCC, and whether they interact synergistically. Our project will provide data to further use of Hh pathway inhibitors and ACBP-3 in clinical treatment of ESCC.