Recent advances in the molecular biology of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) have shown that in ESCC patients, high AKR1C1 expression increase the sensitive of ESCC cells to ethyl-3,4-dihydroxybenzoate (EDHB) providing potential guidance for the chemoprevention of ESCC [42]. Here, AKR1C1 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.