clinicopathological significance of nerves in esophageal cancer nerves are emerging promoters of cancer progression but the innervation of esophageal cancer and its clinicopathologic significance remain unclear in this study nerves were analyzed by immunohistochemistry in a cohort of 260 esophageal cancers including 40 matched lymph node metastases and 137 normal adjacent esophageal tissues nerves were detected in 38 of esophageal cancers and were more associated with squamous cell carcinomas p 004 the surrounding or invasion of nerves by cancer cells perineural invasion was detected in 12 of esophageal cancers and was associated with reduced survival p 004 nerves were found to express the following receptors for nerve growth factor ngf neurotrophic receptor tyrosine kinase 1 and nerve growth factor receptor an association was suggested between high production of ngf by cancer cells and the presence of nerves p 002 in vitro ngf production in esophageal cancer cells was shown by western blot and esophageal cancer cells were able to induce neurite outgrowth in the pc12 neuronal cells the neurotrophic activity of esophageal cancer cells was inhibited by antingf blocking antibodies together these data suggest that innervation is a feature in esophageal cancers that may be driven by cancer cellreleased ngf