Wang JH, et al. - Researchers assessed the prognostic impacts of CD47/CD133 and the potential therapeutic importance of CD47 in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). They analyzed 26 pairs of tumor tissues and adjacent non-tumor tissues and 136 ESCC tissues via immunohistochemistry and estimated the prognostic values of CD47 and CD133 expression and their combined stemness index. In survival analysis, poor overall survival and progression-free survival (PFS) were observed among patients with high CD47 or CD133 expression. Also, the combination of high CD47 and CD133 expression was identified as a reliable independent prognostic factor for both overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival. The characteristics of cancer stem cells (CSCs) were seen in CD47+ CD133+ ESCC cells and anti-CD47 treatment veritably eliminated the CSCs pool. Overall, findings highlighted the promising utility of the stemness index, determined by the expression of CD47 and CD133, as a prognostic predictor. CD47 was identified as a potential therapeutic target for CSCs in ESCC patients.