title: The Future Prospects of Immune Therapy in Gastric and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma.
abstract: The prognosis of esophageal cancers is poor and novel approaches are urgently needed. Despite improvements in outcomes with transtuzumab and ramucirumab, these improvements added an average of only 2 to 3 months with a median overall survival reported to be around 1 year. Comprehensive genomic sequencing has defined some molecular alterations with potential targets, but the majority of patients still do not benefit from druggable targets. Breakthroughs in immune checkpoint blockade have provided new therapeutic options in many cancers. Programmed death ligand 1 (PDL1) overexpression, a possible biomarker predicting response to immune checkpoint inhibitors, approaches forty percent in esophageal and gastric cancers. Translational and molecular studies have shown that esophageal cancers are possible candidate malignancies for immune checkpoint inhibition. In this review, we plan to highlight the mechanisms, preclinical, and early clinical data that provide insight on the role of immune therapeutics in esophageal cancers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology and Oncology, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, 1365 Clifton Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. wshaib@emory.edu.
authors.forename: Walid L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Shaib
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Balamand University, Beirut 1300, Lebanon. jeanpaul.nammour@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Jean Paul A
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Nammour
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. harpaul.s.gill@emory.edu.
authors.forename: Harpaul
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gill
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. mdmody@emory.edu.
authors.forename: Mayur
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mody
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology and Oncology, Winship Cancer Institute, Emory University, 1365 Clifton Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. nfsaba@emory.edu.
authors.forename: Nabil F
authors.initials: NF
authors.lastname: Saba
keywords: esophageal cancer; immune therapy; progress