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MDPI, International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 19(22), p. 10301, 2021

DOI: 10.3390/ijms221910301

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Inhibition of Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling Sensitizes Esophageal Cancer Cells to Chemoradiotherapy

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

The standard treatment of locally advanced esophageal cancer comprises multimodal treatment concepts including preoperative chemoradiotherapy (CRT) followed by radical surgical resection. However, despite intensified treatment approaches, 5-year survival rates are still low. Therefore, new strategies are required to overcome treatment resistance, and to improve patients’ outcome. In this study, we investigated the impact of Wnt/β-catenin signaling on CRT resistance in esophageal cancer cells. Experiments were conducted in adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma cell lines with varying expression levels of Wnt proteins and Wnt/β-catenin signaling activities. To investigate the effect of Wnt/β-catenin signaling on CRT responsiveness, we genetically or pharmacologically inhibited Wnt/β-catenin signaling. Our experiments revealed that inhibition of Wnt/β-catenin signaling sensitizes cell lines with robust pathway activity to CRT. In conclusion, Wnt/β-catenin activity may guide precision therapies in esophageal carcinoma patients.