TY  - JOUR
AU  - Chen, BaoQing
AU  - Chen, Junying
AU  - Wang, Sifen
AU  - Bai, Kunhao
AU  - Li, Zimeng
AU  - Chen, Biqi
AU  - Wang, Ruixi
AU  - Cheng, Xingyuan
AU  - Gao, Yilu
AU  - Yi, Chen
AU  - Cen, Peiying
AU  - Li, Shuangjiang
AU  - Dragomir, Mihnea P
AU  - Zhu, Yujia
AU  - Li, Qiaoqiao
AU  - Yang, Hong
AU  - Xi, Mian
TI  - 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.
JO  - Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer
VL  - 14
IS  - 1
SN  - 2051-1426
CY  - London
PB  - BioMed Central
M1  - DKFZ-2026-00098
SP  - e013065
PY  - 2026
N1  - #DKTKZFB26#
AB  - 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
KW  - Humans
KW  - Male
KW  - Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: blood
KW  - Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: mortality
KW  - Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: therapy
KW  - Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma: drug therapy
KW  - Female
KW  - Chemoradiotherapy: methods
KW  - Cytokines: blood
KW  - Esophageal Neoplasms: blood
KW  - Esophageal Neoplasms: mortality
KW  - Esophageal Neoplasms: therapy
KW  - Esophageal Neoplasms: drug therapy
KW  - Middle Aged
KW  - Aged
KW  - Biomarkers, Tumor: blood
KW  - Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: therapeutic use
KW  - Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors: pharmacology
KW  - Prognosis
KW  - CCL3 (Other)
KW  - CCL4 (Other)
KW  - CRT (Other)
KW  - Cytokine (Other)
KW  - ESCC (Other)
KW  - IL-8 (Other)
KW  - anti-PD-1 (Other)
KW  - Cytokines (NLM Chemicals)
KW  - Biomarkers, Tumor (NLM Chemicals)
KW  - Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors (NLM Chemicals)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:41526165
DO  - DOI:10.1136/jitc-2025-013065
UR  - https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/307626
ER  -