Effects of Thermotherapy on Th1/Th2 Cells in Esophageal Cancer Patients Undergoing Radiotherapy

Esophageal cancer has a high incidence in China (Almhanna et al., 2013; Song et al., 2013), where most patients are diagnosed at middle or advanced stage (Zhao et al., 2007) and not suitable for surgery. Non-surgical treatment of esophageal cancer often relies on radiotherapy and multi-disciplinary comprehensive treatment. For a long time, radiotherapy employs conventional segmentation techniques, with a five-year survival rate of 10%. Local failure and distant metastasis are the main causes of radiotherapy failure. T cells play a major role in tumor immunity, especially in patients with esophageal cancer. After radiotherapy, the body presents a long-term T cell dysfunction (Rotstein al., 1985). Persistent suppressed immune function can change host antitumor immune responses and cause local recurrence and distant metastases. Therefore, enhancing the immune function has certain clinical significance in improving the survival rate and life quality of patients. Thermotherapy has been discovered to ameliorate radiotherapy-induced T cell subset abnormalities, but its effects on Th1/Th2 cells and Tc1/Tc2 cells in patients underwent radiotherapy have not been reported yet. The