Immunotherapy for Esophageal Cancer: State-of-the Art in 2021

Abstract

The management of esophageal cancer (EC) has experienced manifold changes during the last decades. Centralization of EC treatment has been introduced in many countries, subsequently allowing the development of specialized high-volume centers. Minimal invasive surgery has replaced open surgery in many centers, whereas more potent systemic treatments have been introduced in clinical practice. Newer chemotherapy regimens increase long-term survival. Nevertheless, the overall survival of EC patients remains dismal for advanced tumor stages. In this direction, a wide range of targeted biologic agents (immunotherapy) is currently under assessment. Anti- Human Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor-2 (HER-2) monoclonal antibodies are used in HER2 (+) tumors, predominantly well-differentiated adenocarcinomas, and are currently assessed in the neoadjuvant setting (TRAP, INNOVATION trials). Immune checkpoint inhibitors Nivolumab (ATTRACTION-03) and pembrolizumab (KEYNOTE-181), have demonstrated a survival benefit compared with conventional chemotherapy in heavily pre-treated progressive disease. More recently, CheckMate-577 showed very promising results for nivolumab in a curative adjuvant setting, improving disease-free survival mainly for esophageal squamous cell carcinoma. Several ongoing trials are investigating novel targeted agents in the preoperative setting of locally advanced EC. In addition, other immunomodulatory approaches such as peptide vaccines and tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs) are currently under development and should be increasingly integrated into clinical practice.

Keywords: esophageal adenocarcinoma; immunotherapy; oesophageal cancer; squamous cell cancer; tumor microenvironment.