About this Research Topic

Background

Esophagogastric cancer still has a poor prognosis and low cure rates, even after multimodality treatment. The first-line treatment for advanced esophagogastric cancer patients typically involves fluoropyrimidine- and platinum-based chemotherapy. However, alternative therapeutic approaches such as immune checkpoint inhibitors combined with chemotherapy are becoming more common. Studies have demonstrated potential biomarkers such as PD-L1, tumor mutation burden and microsatellite instability to predict response and survival outcomes, but these biomarkers need to be further studied to improve accuracy.

Cancer cells are able to evade the innate anti-tumor immune response via PD-L1 (programmed cell death ligand 1) expression on the cell surface, which then acts to inhibitor the cytotoxic T-cells by binding and blocking the T-cell receptor PD-1 (programmed cell death receptor 1). Immune checkpoint inhibitors re-activate the anti-tumor immune response, by inhibiting PD-L1, PD-1 or other antigens involved in the immune response. The addition of immune therapy to chemotherapy has extended the treatment options for these patients, but questions remain regarding optimal patient selection, response prediction and monitoring, second- and higher-line treatment options and prediction and adequate management of toxicity.

This Research Topic aims to generate a discussion regarding the potential of exploring novel therapeutic options and optimizing the use of already available immune checkpoint inhibitors in advanced gastric cancer and esophageal cancer patients. We welcome Original Research, Reviews, Systematic Reviews and Mini-Reviews.

Please note: manuscripts consisting solely of bioinformatics or computational analysis of public genomic or transcriptomic databases which are not accompanied by validation (independent cohort or biological validation in vitro or in vivo) are out of scope for this section and will not be accepted as part of this Research Topic.

Keywords: esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, immune checkpoint inhibitors, immunotherapy, oncology

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