F. nucleatum can induce expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokines in epithelial cells, including IL-6 and IL-8 (Ahn et al., 2017), which can contribute to the dynamic cross-talk between tumor cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) in the TME for ESCC (Karakasheva et al., 2018). Here, CXCL8 is linked to esophageal squamous cell carcinoma.