%0 Journal Article
%A Chen, BaoQing
%A Chen, Junying
%A Wang, Sifen
%A Bai, Kunhao
%A Li, Zimeng
%A Chen, Biqi
%A Wang, Ruixi
%A Cheng, Xingyuan
%A Gao, Yilu
%A Yi, Chen
%A Cen, Peiying
%A Li, Shuangjiang
%A Dragomir, Mihnea P
%A Zhu, Yujia
%A Li, Qiaoqiao
%A Yang, Hong
%A Xi, Mian
%T Serum cytokines predict response and survival in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma receiving chemoradiotherapy combined with anti-PD-1 antibody: analyses of two phase II clinical trials.
%J Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer
%V 14
%N 1
%@ 2051-1426
%C London
%I BioMed Central
%M DKFZ-2026-00098
%P e013065
%D 2026
%Z #DKTKZFB26#
%X Chemoradiotherapy (CRT) combined with anti-PD-1 for locally advanced esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) has shown promising efficacy but lack the predictive biomarkers to identify patients who could benefit from this therapy. The predictive value of serum cytokines in ESCC patients remains unclear. We aimed to identify cytokine-based biomarkers for treatment response and survival in this setting.Exploratory analyses were conducted on 81 ESCC patients from two phase II trials treated with CRT plus toripalimab, with validation in an independent prospective cohort (n=61). Nineteen serum cytokines were assessed at baseline, during, and post-CRT plus anti-PD-1 antibody. A cytokine-based risk score model (CYTOscore) was constructed. Multi-omics profiling including RNA-seq, WES, and spatial transcriptomics were performed to explore potential differences in tumor microenvironments.Cox analyses identified Interleukin-8 (IL-8), C-C motif chemokine ligand 3 (CCL3), and C-C motif chemokine ligand 4 (CCL4) as potential biomarkers and were used to constructed the CYTOscore. Patients stratified by baseline CYTOscore showed significantly longer OS (HR, 0.31; 95
%K Humans
%K Male
%K Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: blood
%K Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: mortality
%K Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: therapy
%K Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: drug therapy
%K Female
%K Chemoradiotherapy: methods
%K Cytokines: blood
%K Esophageal Neoplasms: blood
%K Esophageal Neoplasms: mortality
%K Esophageal Neoplasms: therapy
%K Esophageal Neoplasms: drug therapy
%K Middle Aged
%K Aged
%K Biomarkers, Tumor: blood
%K Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: therapeutic use
%K Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: pharmacology
%K Prognosis
%K CCL3 (Other)
%K CCL4 (Other)
%K CRT (Other)
%K Cytokine (Other)
%K ESCC (Other)
%K IL-8 (Other)
%K anti-PD-1 (Other)
%K Cytokines (NLM Chemicals)
%K Biomarkers, Tumor (NLM Chemicals)
%K Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (NLM Chemicals)
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%$ pmid:41526165
%R 10.1136/jitc-2025-013065
%U https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/307626